Naruto: Past tense
by SDI hyper
Summary: Sequel to ‘The sands of Time’ With time travel sworn off, they now returned to a completely destroyed Konoha. What’s the best way to raise money to get it rebuilt? Demon Hunting of course! NaruXGaara,KakaXIru,Sasuke x Konohamaru Yaoi
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: Return to the place I belong.

Naruto stretched his arms his arms with a sigh of relief, now that the Nine-Tails was put back in it's correct time and place before it could wake up. Having it stay unconscious the whole time made it much easier, if it had woken up…

Naruto shook the thought out of his head, there was no reason to think of it now. Some time in-between when they left the future and now, Gaara completely swore off moving through time. Things may have ended up better in the long run, but it was complete hell for the near future.

Hell for Konoha in the present.

"It wasn't all a total waste Gaara." Naruto said, sitting on the ground next to him and crossing his legs.

"I suppose it wasn't, but too many things went wrong." Gaara said, his eyes still completely focused on the sand hour glass moving in front of his body under his power.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "But for everything that went wrong, something good happened. It wasn't a complete waist of time, just look around. "

Gaara couldn't take his eyes off the Hourglass, he knew if he did he'd lose concentration and count of the rotation. But he knew what Naruto meant, a lot of good did come out of all of this. Even if they couldn't see it all yet. So Naruto was right, it wasn't a waste of time, and if Gaara gained anything else out of this besides Naruto…

It was sleep, he enjoyed sleep a lot…in fact when they got to Konoha he'd probably grab Naruto and find a good spot to rest. And he did gain a lot of power, when they first started this Gaara could barely take them for a 12 year round trip. Now he had just gone 2000 in the past with out any trouble at all.

But by far Naruto was the best thing this experience brought, Naruto was some how able to do so much. The first time Naruto touched him the sand that constantly plagued him, that defended him if he wanted it too or not, didn't rush up to block Naruto. It was just something about him that it didn't conceder a threat, it was like he wasn't even there at all.

Gaara let all of the thoughts in his head disappear. He never had any trouble getting things out of his mind, in-fact he found that if he didn't think about something or tried to remember it, it'd just fade in a few seconds. His mind worked that way, he never had to think about or remember anything he didn't want to.

Until Naruto.

When he first found that hourglass with his and Naruto's name carved on it he couldn't seem to stop his mind from thinking of him. It was like an obsession he couldn't control. Gaara soon after realized it was something he had no will or desire to control, he began to like thinking of Naruto.

The hourglass stopped and with it the sand surrounding them stopped flowing and faded away. The grainy waves of tan minerals fell away to revel wet, muddy ground and humid air. A shadow was cast completely over the whole area from patches of gray clouds scattered in the sky, giving everything morbid, gloomy almost hopeless atmosphere to go with the setting.

This was Konoha, nothing more then an empty wetland in the storm's wake.

Konohamaru's eyes went wide and he lifted his hands to his head, "It's different…. To hear that Konoha was destroyed …then to and seeing it." He sighed, looking down at the soaked ground littered with debris of former structures .

"At lest the most important thing survived." Iruka said. Konoha's population, it survived for what he could easily tell was 90. People where scattered around the destroyed city with nothing better to do then solemnly save what they could.

"Which way was my house? I can't tell where anything used to be." Kiba said, limping slightly as he walked forward and look over what was in front of him.

"Not everything was destroyed." Neji said, "The Hokage Monument is behind us."

Everyone turned around, looking toward the distant stone structure, weathered from the storm but still recognizable from any distance. Now it just seemed to be a point of reference, to give some general idea of the location someone was trying to find by memory of how far away it was from the monument.

"Then it must be that way," Kiba nodded, holding Akamaru firmly under his arm "I wonder if my family survived." He began to walk towards the location his home used to stand, giving a small acknowledging nod to Neji who silently decided to make sure he got there safely.

Neji wasn't really worried about his family, he knew there where many underground cellars in the Main and Branch houses of his family. With that knowledge he wasn't in much of a hurry to get back to them, he was much more willing to stay with Kiba, especially now.

"There's only one place too go now." Iruka said.

"Hokage Monument." Kakashi replied agreeingly. Both of them disappeared in a blur of speed only achieved by years of training.

Konohamaru watched the spot where the two had stood for a moment, deciding he should move too. There was no point being sad about it, that wouldn't help anyone and he knew it. "Sasuke, we should go too."

Sasuke nodded and wrapped his arms around Konohamaru's waist, springing towards their destination with his greater speed to carry them. That left only Gaara and Naruto behind. "Gaara…Are you going to go back to the sand village?" Naruto had his hands rested behind his head and eyes diverted to some unknown source as far away for Gaara as he could manage.

It was easy to see his concern, even to Gaara. A person completely oblivious to what others were thinking, their feeling and had no consciousness to signs. Being with Naruto had already made him more aware of the other next him for some reason he couldn't figure out. "Why?"

"There's nothing here, I don't even think this place is livable." Naruto kicked the ground, splashing around an amount of mud outward.

"Are you going to leave?" Gaara looked down at the small boy, becoming slightly puzzled at his expression.

"No." Naruto's voice was completely sure when he said this.

"Why not? You said this place wasn't livable, there's nothing left."

"I couldn't just abandon Konoha, it's my home." Naruto said.

Gaara still couldn't see how Naruto could be so loyal to a place that didn't want him. Even now when there was nothing to stay for, no reason to stay loyal. The Leaf was no longer on the map in every sense of the phrase. "…"

"Aren't you going to go back home?" Naruto asked, still looking away with a solemn voice.

Gaara took off the forehead protector from around the strap on his gourd, looking down at the insignia closely. Gaara couldn't see himself being loyal to this place, they didn't want him, just to keep him as a weapon in storage until they needed him. A place like that couldn't be considered home, his only home was with Naruto, no matter where he was.

Naruto watched curiously yet silent while small amount of sand seeped out of the gourd on Gaara's back. The tan minerals covered the plate, then fell off leaving behind a large slash across it . "No."

Naruto grinned, hugging Gaara with a happy relief building in his body. Leaving Gaara to look down at him with another puzzled expression across his face. "What are you so happy about?"

Naruto pulled back and shook his head, the large grin still remained "Nothing."

Gaara began smiling slightly, seeing Naruto happy made him feel…happy too. But then that made him confused again, he still didn't know why Naruto was able to bring up these types of reactions.

Gaara's thoughts were suddenly disrupted when he felt a strong pull on his arm, Naruto was pulling him toward the Hokage Monument and easily caught him by surprise. Another thing only Naruto was able to do, some how Naruto lowered his defenses, made his mind at ease and not constantly aware of his surrounds. "Come on."

Gaara allowed himself to be lead by the smaller boy, who seemed to have lightened up a lot since he first returned to the city.

On the platform in front of the actual formation 6 people stood when Naruto and Gaara arrived. Including Iruka, Kakashi, Sasuke, Konohamaru, and two people neither of them had ever seen before. An older man and woman, both become visibly uneasy when they saw the two.

"Who are they?" Gaara asked softly.

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know."

The woman and the man walked over to them, "Any particular reason you're here?" The woman asked Gaara.

"I'm with him." Gaara's voice was back into the cold tone he used before, one that he hadn't used around Naruto since their fight. The man looked over him, seeing the line through the sand's emblem and taking that into account, though it wasn't sure which way he took it.

"Teh." Gaara shook his head, being quick to pick up on these types of things. It didn't take him too long to figure out their concern "If you think I'm here to scout The Leaf's status for the Sand, you can forget it. I no longer belong to them."

He meant that in everyway, he wasn't going to be used by the village anymore, they were the reason he hadn't slept any in his life, he gained the dark circles around his eyes to prove it. Why he was prone to being unstable and homicidal. Why he had this demon bound to him, and why his existence was hated, feared, and completely miserable. Not exactly fitting treatment for the son of a Kazekage, even his father tried to kill him.

The man and women weren't very understanding of that, having just about every doubt about it. The glanced at each other, in a clear look that said he couldn't be left to leave alive.

"75 of the Sand village is either destroyed or close to it, the population has been cut in half because of no adequate knowledge and perpetration for the storm. I doubt they're interested in taking over the Leaf with there problems." Gaara said.

"He's right." Iruka said in Gaara's defense, "I've seen it my self, they're numbers are much lower then ours."

"They'll come after you." The woman said, not out of concern for his safely or just to give him the knowledge. Only because she was afraid of what might happen if Sand hunters came here, they'd no doubt report Konoha's status if they came back with Gaara alive or dead. And Konoha had little to know weapons or supplies while other villages had at lest more then they had, there was always the chance of attack.

The Sand was most defiantly going to attempt to kill Gaara when they found out he was coinciding with the Leaf. Gaara knew way too much of the village's secrets to waste the extra effort of detaining him and bringing him back alive.

Gaara wasn't too concerned though, "If they do come after me, I'll handle it myself and wont involve any of the Leaf." He knew _If_ wasn't the right word, it was _when_.

The man and the woman looked at each other again, giving soundless words to each other while Naruto leant over to whisper into Gaara's ear, "I remember who they are now, they're apart of Konoha's council, the decide a bunch of import things or something like that."

The two council members decided to leave him alone…for now. He didn't seem to pose a threat and they had more important things to discuss, which they'd also decided was alright to do so in front of Gaara. The woman turned towards Iruka and Kakashi to continue while the man watched Gaara and Naruto from the corner of his eye. Naruto didn't seem to notice it, but Gaara did.

The woman cleared her throat, "As you may already know, we've received reports back from our scouts-" Gaara couldn't help but smirk coldly at the irony, the woman had said this just after accusing him and still keeping him under suspicion of being a spy from the Sand.

"-they couldn't get any information. Only because a reported increase in the number of demons."

"Demons?" Kakashi looked at her skeptically, easily distinguished by his one visible eye. "What dose that have to do with anything?"

"The number of demon sightings have tripled, it was too dangerous to go farther then they did…The growing sightings are directly tied to the storm, all of the Chakra released by it seemed to have drawn them out."


	2. Chapter 2: Demonic

Chapter 2: Demonic

"So what dose this mean for Konoha?" Iruka asked.

The woman shook her head, "We're not sure yet, no demons were spotted around this area. Though we don't know the reasons, we should be safe for now."

Iruka looked up toward the rock formation over head, keeping his voice devoid as he talked. "What's going to happen to the people outside of this area?"

"There's a high demand of private residence requesting missions to exterminate demons that frequently attack." The man said. "But Konoha doesn't have the resources to even attempt to take missions right now, not even to hold up appearance."

Iruka sighed, he couldn't blame them. At a time like this you'd have to put your own first, and Konoha was defiantly in need to be put first. But his heart when out to them, he only hoped they could survive, chances where that they wouldn't. Everything seemed to be happening in a domino effect.

"So what's next for Konoha?" Kakashi asked.

The man shook his head, "We have nothing here, no food, no supplies, no shelter. If we continue like this we'll be wiped out in 2 weeks."

"We have no other options but to appeal to other villages for help." The woman said.

"But…If we do that, they'll take over the Leaf." Kakashi said with a hint of surprise in his voice, if they asked for this type of help from other villages then they'd take this chance to expand there territory. The Leaf wouldn't be the Leaf anymore, whoever gained Konoha would have a monopoly over all of the other villages with this much power and two villages.

"We have no choice." The counsel woman said "The number one priority right now is to keep the city's inhabitants alive, not the city." By the sound of her voice they could tell that the decision had already been made and nothing anyone said could change that. But apparently Naruto didn't see that, or care.

"No way! You can't just give away the Leaf!" Naruto shouted. "I haven't done all of this fighting for Konoha"

"Naruto." Iruka called out.

"All of those missions"

"Naruto."

"An attack from the Sand village"

"Naruto!"

"And fight a whole bunch of demons"

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled, the tone of his voice making Naruto jump a little, it demanded attention. It was completely unlikely and unexpected coming from him, it was surprising to the boy to say the least. "There's nothing we can do about it. The Leaf's honor is important, but keeping thousands of people alive is a greater priority. And the decision has already been made."

Naruto shook himself out of the surprised daze, his face becoming more determined then ever. "No! We can't just let this happen."

"Shut up dobe." Sasuke said stoically.

Before he could even shoot a reply back, he realized just about everyone was against him. Except for Gaara who wasn't going to be involved and Konohamaru who was looking away morbidly, everyone was giving him some type of look. Naruto closed his mouth and held his head down, it didn't make him any less angry about what was happening.

It made him so mad that instead of yelling like he usually would have, he only walked off with his fist clinches and his eye narrowed and anger. Gaara glanced back at everyone else watching the boy, then silently followed.

"None of us like this, but it has to happen." The man said. "It's the only way we'll have a chance to survive."

They watched as the two Council members turned and walked away. And just as soon as he realized nothing else would be said about the matter, Konohamaru turned and ran off with an atmosphere of quiet anger.

"Konohamaru?" Sasuke watched questioningly as the boy jumped from the monument, moving as fast as he could. Sasuke, clearly confused by the sudden change in mood, went after him.

"Doesn't look like he likes it either." Iruka sighed

"And so this is how the leaf finally crumbles, not with a bang but with a whimper." Kakashi turned to look out on to the village...

! - ! - !

Naruto stopped at the foot of the Hokage monument, growling angrily while he punched the wall over and over as hard as he could. "Damnit!"

Gaara landed on the ground behind him, seeing that he was obviously angry. "There's no other way it could have happened." He said in his best attempt to comfort the boy, but it was clear he was bad a this being his first time. Naruto was so much better doing this with him.

"No, There was some other way!" He yelled, punching harder and ignoring the pain that came. "There had to be!"

"There wasn't." Gaara only realized after he said it that this could and most likely would start an argument with Naruto.

But it didn't, Naruto just kept pounding away at the wall. "Weak!" He shouted, clinching his eyes shut. "This is so weak!" And next punch was stopped, Naruto opened his eyes, wondering why he couldn't move his arm. He found that it was completely covered in immobilizing sand no amount of physical force from Naruto would break.

"Stop it." Gaara said firmly.

"I stayed here! I stayed here while everyone hated me! I stayed here to be come a Ninja of the Leaf and they just give up!" Naruto shouted, falling to his knees. "All of that work and they just give up…" He could see every hope and dream for his life fading, shattering before his eyes when he heard those words from his own mouth. What was he with out hopes, dreams for the future?

Gaara lifted his gourd off his back and sat down next to Naruto, resting his back against the wall so that he was looking at Naruto's face. "You want to protect this place don't you?" He asked, having already seen that this was someplace important to him. "This is what Konoha needs to do to survive, and what is the Leaf without people. What's going to happen when everyone dies, just to remain independent? Is it really worth it to you?"

Naruto dropped his head, "I guess your right." he said. Though he couldn't stop the thought from ringing through his mind that this was the end of the Leaf, it just repeated over and over. Having actually come to the point, someplace he never thought they'd reach.

! - ! - !

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke jumped in front of the boy, watching him run into him and stumble back. "What are you running for?"

"I'm not running!" Konohamaru shouted angrily at a surprised Sasuke. The older boy noticed that Konohamaru looked mad, but didn't look up at him like he would usual do when he was mad at someone.

"What's wrong?"

Konohamaru kicked the ground. "I can't take this!" He yelled "Konoha…Was the only thing my Grandfather left behind. He gave his life for his place, this is way he died!"

Konohamaru clinched his fist, feeling tears burning at his closed eyes "And if we're just going to give it away…Why did he have to die! It's not fair!" He shouted, letting a few sobs escape.

Sasuke knelt down next to him and hug the boy. "…Your right." He said softly. "It's not fair…But there's nothing we can do about it but survive, Live"

Konohamaru sighed as Sasuke let go of him, "Your right…I'll just have to stay alive and deal with it." He said, walking off in the other direction.

"…" Sasuke stood and watched him for a moment, he knew this time when Konohamaru said it that there was nothing he could say to it. Last time it was simple, this time it was complicated.

! - ! - !

"Naruto."

Naruto tuned around to see Iruka standing behind him, just as solemn as before only with a slightly apologetic look on his face. Naruto only nodded in silent acknowledgement, allowing the man to walked closer without getting any type of hostility. "Sorry about before."

"..It's alright I guess." Naruto said, still on his knees with his head down, he'd calmed though. "But I know there has to be something we can do about this."

Iruka sat down on Naruto's other side opposite of Gaara, letting one leg stretch out and lifting his other knee to rest his arm on. "I wish I knew one." Iruka said, tilting his head back and looking at the patchy gray sky.

The clouds moved slowly, only letting a few rays of sun out even now. One of the gray clouds move out of the sun's reach, sending a few more of the golden rays on to the ruined city, One of them landing over the three of them. Iruka closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth and light it brought to this one particular area.

"Naruto?"

The three of them looked to the left to see Konohamaru walking towards them with Sasuke following loosely behind. "What are you guys doing?" He asked, hopping that something was being planned.

"Nothing." Naruto said, turning is head back towards the ground as a disappointed Konohamaru sat next to him, being sad in a group was better then being sad alone.

"Nobody's thought of anything we can do save Konoha?" He asked disappointedly.

"It's just not going to happen." Sasuke said, standing over Konohamaru "We don't have the money to rebuild, or even to get food, this has to happen."

"Money…" Gaara looked off in to the distance forlornly as if he had an unfinished thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing really, I was just thinking it was a shame that there was no missions that paid high enough to help the situation."

There was a small pause as Naruto's face raised with an idealistic look, though he didn't say anything, still forming his thought it seemed.

"What's everyone doing here?" Kiba asked, walking toward the small group with Neji still behind him. "Well it's good your all here, did you hear what's happening to Konoha?"

"Yeah, we heard." Konohamaru said.

"Too bad there's nothing we can do about it." Kiba shook his head, then flinched somewhat when Naruto jumped to his feet in front of him.

"Hey! Why don't we take some missions?" Naruto said, his solemn tone elevated with the happiness of coming up with something that could actual work.

"Weren't you listening?" Sasuke snorted coldly. "Konoha doesn't have the resources to do anything like that."

Naruto gave him a quick glare, "I meant just _us,_ we could take some missions and build up money. Konoha got alone fine when we were all gone, we could do it again."

"It sounds like a good plan in theory."

Naruto jumped when he heard Kakashi's voice from above him. The man was sitting on a ledge a few feet up, completely inconspicuous as always. "Stop doing that!" Naruto yelled, pointing his finger angrily at Kakashi.

Kakashi jumped down, landing right next to Iruka. "But you couldn't raise enough money in time to save these people. Let alone save this whole village."

Iruka looked up at him, able to tell he was still holding on to one last thought. "Unless?"

"Unless these people your planning on taking missions from pay really well." Kakashi finished.

"The human will to survive is a very empowering thing." Gaara said. "People will pay anything they have if they're life is in enough danger." He said this from experience, many people tried to offer him money not to kill them. Of course he only smiled and did it anyway but now he wished he had taken the money, it would help this situation and make Naruto happy again… He really wanted Naruto to be happy again.

A devious grin spread across Naruto's face, "Lets do it!"

Iruka looked around at the group, most seemed to like the idea, even thought it could work. Kakashi on the other hand obviously didn't, Iruka said something before he could object. "It won't help the city much, but we could use it to help the people. At the lest we could use the money to buy food, we don't know how long it will take to get help from other villages. For all we know we wont survive that long on our own."

Kakashi could easily see Iruka's reason for becoming a ninja now, it was to help people. That was his main goal, and most likely why he didn't attempt to go past his current rank, he obviously wasn't one for the assassination missions that came with the next level. And if there was one thing he couldn't resist was Iruka and the face he made when he wanted to help a cause. It was just so cute.

"Is everyone in agreement on this?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm in." Kiba volunteered. Neji raised his hand directly after.

"Me too!" Konohamaru said, he jumped at the chance to help.

Sasuke glanced down at the boy, then raised his hand also. He knew he would be spending most of his time protecting Konohamaru, not that he minded. He still enjoyed it, and he sure as hell wasn't going to leave him alone after he'd lost him to…Itachi of all people.

"So that's everyone huh?" Kakashi looked around at the 7, knowing that Iruka and Naruto were obviously on board and Gaara was going to follow Naruto. With a small shake of his head, Kakashi disappeared in a wave of rushing wind and debris.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Your going to do it, seriously?" Jiraiya looked over at Kakashi questioningly, propping his elbows against the railing of the Hokage monument and leaning back.

"They're going to do this with or with out me." Kakashi said, "I'd rather have them do it with."

Jiraiya sighed, "If I tell you what you want, you have to promise me one thing." Kakashi looked up at him, waiting for him to speak again. Jiraiya looked directly into his one visible eye, completely serous. "If you do this, you can't do it as a shinobi of the Leaf."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Just about every other village has been hit or is in the path of the storm. We, or anyone else, aren't able to take missions right now. If other villages think that we are strong enough to do so when they aren't…"

"We won't have a chance at getting any help." Kakashi said with a solemn understanding, "Makes sense I guess."

"Good." Jiraiya pulled a sheet of paper out of his back pocket and handed it to Kakashi, "Here's what you wanted, a list of everyone requesting missions."

Kakashi took the paper, finding it in fact was 5 if them folded together. It was quite a long list, Jiraiya had even highlighted the people who had the most money "Do you know when all of this is going to happen?"

"I don't know, we haven't even gotten a reply back from any of the other villages…I just hope we don't become so desperate that we'd even rely on the Sound for help."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was nightfall, around midnight on the outskirts of what used to be Konoha.

"Finally managed to catch up with all of you." Kakashi said.


	3. Chapter 3: DSI

Chapter 3: D.S.I

Despite the storm, there was still a few parts of the forest out side of Konoha that survived. After Kakashi talked to Jiraiya and caught up on some well deserved rest with Iruka, he decided it would be the perfect time to track down everyone else. Iruka was confused about why Kakashi was doing this in the middle of the night, but Kakashi was Kakashi after all.

"It's the middle of the night." Kiba rubbed his eyes and sat up, his back against a downed tree with his elbows propped behind him on top of it. "You couldn't have waited until the morning?" He asked with an annoyed tone.

"I would have done it sooner but a black cat crossed my path and I had to go around." Kakashi said. Iruka glanced over at him and shook his head, smiling in amusement. Kakashi was…an interesting person, he often wondered how he ended up with an ordinary guy like him.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly, he was fine with Kakashi and usual lateness…in the _day_time. Now it was just annoying, "We're all here." He said, prompting Kakashi to hurry up. Konohamaru, sitting next to him, could barely keep his eyes open though he was determined to try. Konohamaru wanted to help Konoha, even if that meant the loss of sleep.

"Yeah, come on already!" Naruto shouted, Kakashi was interrupting a well deserved sleep. Not Naruto's though, as tired as he was Gaara was the one who needed sleep. Needless to say Gaara was pretty mad that Kakashi decided to do this now, more so then anyone else. He was also the most coherent and alert out of all of them, he could easily go back to not sleeping so whenever he was awake he was always ready to do anything.

The same couldn't be said about everyone else who were barely ready to do this.

Kakashi reached into his back pocket and pulled out the sheets of paper he'd gotten from Jiraiya earlier today. "I got the information."

"So we have permission to do this?" Kiba asked.

Kakashi shook his head, "No. No one else knows about this unless one of you said something. Has anyone?" Kakashi looked around, each of them gave some type of a negative answer.

"Then this wont work." Neji said "If the Konoha's counsel doesn't want us to do this, then they'll stop us before we can take our first mission."

"Is there anyway around that?" Kiba asked.

"No." Kakashi said plainly.

"So there's no way we can do this?" Naruto asked.

"I didn't say that." Kakashi sat down against a tree next to Iruka, "We can still do this with out alerting the counsel, but there's one condition."

Everyone listened carefully, all of them watching Kakashi though they could just barely see him through a stray ray of moon light that shined through the trees "We can't associate in anyway with Konoha or the village of the leaf."

"Huh?" Maybe it was because he was barely awake but Konohamaru didn't quite understand that. "What do you mean?"

"You all know that if other villages think that we have the capability to perform missions, our chances of getting help from them are next to none." Kakashi explained. "So if all of you are serous about doing this, your going to have to disown and disavowal Konoha completely. That's the only way we'll be able avoid interference."

"So the only way we can do this is as mercenaries." Gaara wasn't apposed to the idea, he wasn't technically with the Leaf anyway and everyone knew as such. He was called Gaara of the sand, disowning the Leaf wasn't really that hard for him.

It was however for a few other people, "There's no other way?" Naruto asked, Kakashi shook his head, there really wasn't any other way to do this. With a sigh he held his head down and reached back, slowly untying the forehead protector.

Iruka watched as Naruto looked down at it, he knew Naruto was reluctant to part with it. He'd done so much and waited so long to obtain it, for him that was the first steep to achieving his dream. It wasn't something he enjoyed watching. Naruto finally shoved it into his back pocket, he didn't have a chance to become Hokage anymore, what was the point of still wearing this?

Following suit, everyone else did the same, removing the last symbol of a destroyed village. "Can I hold on to them?" Konohamaru asked, his gaze steadily down on his shirt which held the Leaf's insignia. He also was reluctant to part with it, it was his favorite shirt, and if he wasn't old enough to go to ninja academy and earn the official proof of the leaf, this was the next best thing to him.

Though he didn't know exactly why Konohamaru wanted to do this, Sasuke handed his forehead protector over to him anyway. "Here, go ahead." Kiba tossed his over to Konohamaru, Neji did the same, followed by Naruto, Kakashi and Iruka.

He look down at them gratefully, then noticing he was one short. "Gaara…Can I have yours too?" Gaara looked at him questingly, he wasn't sure why Konohamaru would want his since he was from the Sand. He took it off the strap of his gourd and handed it over to the boy unadversely. "Thanks, I'll hold on to these." He said, giving the items a slightly protective look.

"If we can't do this as ninja's of Konoha, what do we do this as?" Iruka asked, "Every mercenary organization has a name."

"I got one!" Konohamaru said excitedly. "Konohamaru corps…number 2."

"No way!" Naruto said. "I have a better one, Uzumaki"

"No." Sasuke immediately cut him off getting glaring look from Naruto.

Seeing this was going to end up as a large augment, Kiba quickly changed the subject knowing they should come back to it later. Maybe when everyone was more dozy and too incoherent to start a fight. "Hey uh…8 people is kinda a lot to only handle one mission at a time." Kiba said, a little proud of his quick thinking. "Shouldn't we split up and take separate missions, we'd gain more money that way."

"Your right." Iruka agreed "We should probably break up into something smaller to take on more….groups of 2 might be too small for all of you to handle…so we'll split in half."

Everyone looked around at each other, what 4 people would they really want to work with? "And try to keep it balanced out." Kakashi said. There was a small silence of contemplation between them, but Sasuke didn't really even have to think about it.

"I want my team." He said plainly, and when he said this he obviously wasn't referring to team 7. Kiba and Neji were a little surprised that he didn't even conceder anyone else, truth was that he worked better with them then anyone else and it was a somewhat balanced.

Sasuke was the speed of the team, even though Konohamaru was faster chances were Sasuke would try and keep him away from any fights. Neji was the scout and generally informational, with his Bakyugan and his knowledge he filled the position. Kiba was the power, he was the hard hitter of the group that also served as a tracker. This team did have a sense of well-roundedness.

"Guess that leaves us together again." Naruto said. Naruto was the obvious speed of the team, maybe he could be more if he could control the Kuybi's charka better. Iruka was the most knowledgeable on these types of matters so he was generally the informant, and with his skills he was an effective tracker. Gaara was the power of the team, and with his sand as a defense he was suited to be the scout, the first person to check out the situation and be in danger. Kakashi was a mix of everything, so he was flexible on other positions.

And clearly the leader of the team were apparent, Sasuke was the head of his team….the other team wasn't so clear. A first glance it would be Kakashi, but it wasn't confirmed.

"How about if we use…." Konohamaru stopped, because the other group's leader wasn't really curtain, he couldn't use their names for their organization. "Never mind."

"How about" Naruto was once again cut off by Sasuke.

"No." He said plainly.

"Stop doing that!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke looked at him sideways, "We don't want anything that involves any part of your name."

Naruto shot another glare at him, "Fine! But it was _my_ idea."

"I got one, How about…" Kiba's voice trailed off "No, that's just stupid, never mind."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

They sat there another hour trying to come up with a decent name, or in Sasuke's case, preventing the ones he deemed unfit.

"I give up." Kiba sighed "I'm a few seconds away from just calling us _those guys_."

"Giving up already? Keep going this is very entertaining." Kakashi laid his head back against the tree.

"Forget it, it's imposable to come up with a name that's up to _Uchiha_ standards." Naruto said, shooting another look Sasuke's way.

Kiba looked over at Neji who'd been completely quiet this whole time, "You haven't said anything yet." He said, "Got anything?"

Neji lifted his hand to his chin and looked upward thoughtfully… "D.S.I."

"What dose that mean?"

"Demon Suppression Initiative."

There was a small silence of contemplation between them, so far no objections. "Sounds good to me." Naruto said tiredly "Any objections _Sasuke_ ?"

"No." Sasuke said.

"D.S.I, Not a bad choice." Iruka said, "Now there is one other thing, positions. We need someone to manage income and profit, I think Kiba can handle that"

"Yeah, I can do it." Kiba accepted.

" …And we'll need some for research on our targets, to get as much information as they can on the demons we'll come against…How about you Neji, you've always been good at that type of thing."

Neji nodded, "Alright."

Iruka looked around again, "And we'll need someone to keep records, past funds, clients and mission information for future reference…Sasuke?" Sasuke gave a small accepting nod. "Next we need someone to initially go see the clients on DSI's behalf, negotiate payment….I don't know why I'm doing this but…Kakashi, do you think you could do that. You've always been good a reading people."

"I can do it." Kakashi said.

"Next, we need someone to actually spend the money, buy supplies for Konoha and equipment for us. Naruto?"

"Sure." Naruto said. "But what you Iruka?'

"Yeah, your organizing everything, maybe you could be a manager or something like that." Kiba suggested.

Iruka thought about it for a moment… He didn't think he was the type, but he did step up and take charge to give some direction when it was needed. He knew what needed to be done next and made sure it was done, that's what was needed for this type of position. "Why not."

"What about me Iruka-sensei?" Konohamaru asked "I wanna help."

Iruka smiled "You can help me manage…I have a feeling I'm going to need a lot of help."


	4. Chapter 4: DSI Part 2

Chapter 4: D.S.I Part 2

Another warm, sunny day in the ruins of Konoha, blue skies, few clouds, not that anyone noticed. Even though there was little more work to be done, which wasn't a good thing for most people. The smaller children were happy about it but the adults weren't, no more work to do for Konoha meant that this was finally defeat. It meant they could do nothing else to help themselves, they could only wait to die.

And that's all they thought they could do, that was all most of them could do. Maybe it was a lack of inspiration or a lost of will, but some weren't going to let that fighting spirit die so easily. It may just possibly have been hopeless but that didn't matter to them, they couldn't live knowing they didn't try to help. " What are we going here for?" Kiba asked, his hands in his coat pocket and Akamaru in his usual spot.

"Lee told me he burred something here before the storm." Neji said, standing in what used to be Lee's backyard in front of the remnants of a tree. With a shovel in hand he dug through the dirt, all of it completely saturated making it easier to scoop more up with one motion. And he found what he was looking for exactly where Lee specified, in a shallow hole in this very spot.

It was a large, gray, square safe with a rail on each side to lift it. "Though he never told me it was a safe." Neji knelt down and grabbed on to one rail while Kiba grabbed on to the other and began to pull it out of the hole.

"This this thing is big, and really heavy." Kiba said in a slightly strained voice as they lifted it higher and higher. "How did he get this thing out here in the first place." An apparent relief came into his voice when they dropped it on the ground next to the hole. It came up to their knees and wasn't as big as they originally thought, but it seemed strong enough to survive the storm to easily survive above ground.

"He didn't tell me what was inside either…how am I suppose to open this?" Neji looked down at the gray box thoughtfully.

"Let's break it." Kiba said with a smirk, he found that this would be the perfect opportunity to test his strength.

"No, we don't know what's inside, it might break." Neji said. "I'm going to have to figure out the combination…but how am I suppose to do that? I can't just try any random numbers, it would take to long.."

"Come on, it's Lee. He probably picked some combination important to him like his birthday." Kiba said, "Try that."

Neji looked back at him "I don't know his birthday."

"Neji, you have your work cut out for you."

! - !- !

! - ! - !

"It's our first client, why wouldn't I tag along." Iruka said, treading through the destroyed forest with Kakashi. The ground was littered in fallen trees and wood debris, very little of anything was left rooted except for a few strands of grass here and there, this landscape was already doomed to become a desert. Maybe with luck and help it could become a field, but there was almost no chance that it would become a forest again.

"You were right not to assign yourself to this job." Kakashi said with his normal lazy tone of voice. "Your too compassionate."

"Huh?" Iruka looked over at him slightly confused. "What do you mean? We got into this to help people, why wouldn't I be compassionate?"

"We got into this to help Konoha, that means we need to negotiate the maximum amount of money possible for our contracts. Your compassion would interfere with that." Kakashi stated simply.

"And I suppose yours wouldn't." Iruka said with an almost sarcastic tone, though it didn't appear so Kakashi did have a compassionate side…but that was what it was, a side of him. Iruka's compassion and everything else about his personality was interloped with everything else. Iruka didn't really have sides of himself, every face he showed weither it was anger or love was only the same face in a different light. He really didn't see what Kakashi meant, he just didn't understand how his desire to help would stop him from helping Konoha.

"No it wouldn't and that's why I'm a Jounin." Kakashi knew that Iruka's inability to detach would end up being his demise on a Jounin leveled mission, besides his own will that's of the reasons he was still a Chuunin. Iruka glanced over at him once and decide to keep looking ahead, it wasn't completely sure of what Kakashi was implying but he'd go along and see.

! - ! - !

"Hey wait, who's team is going to do the mission?" Konohamaru asked, when he heard Iruka left with Kakashi, he decided that it was time to start doing his assistant management duties. Back in the same spot they met in last night, Sasuke, Gaara and Naruto waited for the two older men to return.

Before they could think about it, a loud thump sounded from behind them as Kiba and Neji dropped the safe about a foot away from them. With a tired sigh, Kiba sat down on it and Neji did the same. "What did we miss?" Kiba asked.

"We need to decide who's team is going to take the first mission." Konohamaru said, not taking any notice to the safe. "Who's going to do it?"

"We might as well." Naruto volunteered, "Kakashi and Iruka are already there."

"Shouldn't you go after them then?" Konohamaru said, pointing in the direction they went in Kakashi and Iruka's direction.

Gaara and Naruto stood up, "Yeah, we should get going." Naruto said, springing off after the other two members of his team, Gaara doing the same.

Konohamaru pulled out a clip board from some unknown place behind him and a pencil out from under his goggle strap. Writing something down, the boy walked over to Sasuke and handed the board to him. "What's this?" He asked.

"It's yours, your keeping the records?" Konohamaru said, Sasuke looked down at the clipboard, seeing that in Konohamaru's bad handwriting he had written down the names of those going on the first mission. Sasuke immediately erased it and rewrote it neatly.

"Wow, your really taking this seriously." Kiba said visibly impressed with Konohamaru.

Konohamaru nodded proudly.

! -! - !

! - ! - !

It was amazing that there client's house was still standing, and it was the only cover the man had against the demons outside. The house was intact completely except for all of the windows being broken, the ones on the first floor had been boarded up with as much as the man could gather from outside.

"These demons…they're horrible!" The man said, sitting in the living room with Iruka and Kakashi. "I can't get outside, I've been completely trapped here with no food or water."

"That's pretty bad Mr. Takoyama." Iruka said, "We should get started as quickly as possible."

"Yes, I'm prepared to offer you 100,000 to exterminate them." Takoyama said.

Iruka stood up to shake the man's hand to make it official when Kakashi pulled him back down. "Mr. Takoyama, you the head of a chain of vendor companies aren't you?"

"Yes." The man nodded.

"It's a very successful chain, that's why we can't except this offer." Kakashi said plainly, getting a questioning look from Iruka.

"100,000 is a very generous offer" He replied, cut off by the loud crashing sound of something coming through one of his second floor windows. He froze in fear, hearing the next sound, that of his possessions being broken.

"Is 100,000s worth your life." Kakashi said, still as cool as ever. Iruka looked somewhat surprised by Kakashi, this was bordering extortion.

"Ok, name your price." The man said fearfully.

"One million."

"What? A million!"

"Or you can take your chances on your own." Kakashi said, his statement emphasized by the sound of what ever had just come in head for the stairway to the first floor.

"Alright."

As soon as the deal was made, Kakashi jumped to his feet with a Kunai in hand, heading for the stairway behind them in a speed that even surprised Iruka. He got up and went after him, easily able to see the attacker from the bottom of the stairs.

A Demon of course, of the insect verity, it was what resembled an ant only much larger. It was tall enough to come up to his knees if he stood next to it. It was quick and also it could walk on walls and ceilings, it's manacles in front of it's mouth was the real threat. But it did have one apparent weakness, back and air attacks.

Kakashi jumped over it, diving gracefully through the small space between the demon and the ceiling. The ant let out a low pitched screech, unable to follow Kakashi's movements. So it looked towards it's next target, Iruka. Wasting no time it moved down the stairs toward him with a speed that barely gave him time to draw a knife.

Iruka jumped back before it's large manacles could close around his leg, throwing the Kunai with all his strength into his head between the two large eyes. Yet it only managed to slow it down for a few seconds and it kept coming at him "Resilient." Iruka grunted, not letting that detail catch him off guard and taking another leap backwards.

"How is that possible…" Takoyama said fearfully, almost running into Iruka in a rush to get out of it's path.

"Stay calm it can still be beaten." Iruka drew another Kunai from his holder, throwing them was a waste, it would take a few to the head to kill it and it wasn't worth the effort unless it was weakened. So the only way to do it was in close. Takoyama nearly screamed in fear when he saw Iruka jump over the ant demon and leaving him in it's vision. Of course it went for him next.

Iruka landed behind it, turning back and jumping on to the ant's back. It fell from the sudden weight, giving Iruka the chance to give a quick slash across the head. The knife cut deep, going half way into it's skull, but it still wasn't enough. Iruka drove the Kunai into the weakened skull, pushing it halfway through it's brain. That seemed to be sufficient to kill it once and for all.

Before he could get any words from Takoyama, Iruka dashed up the stairs to the second floor hallway. Three more demons lay dead across the expanse of the corridor up to the window where Kakashi was glancing out of. "What is it?" Iruka asked.

"Looks like the rest of our team decided to make an appearance." Kakashi said, jumping out of the broken window to the ground in front of the home. Just as he said, Naruto and Gaara had showed up, only to be intercepted by the ants with there not so inconspicuous arrival.

"Where the hell are all of these things coming from!" Naruto said when he saw Kakashi land next to him, with his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu he had created 5 other clones to hold of the ants. And he also had given up on long range attacks and now focused on a hit and move type strategy, but he already lost 2 clones attacking from the front.

Gaara on the other hand wasn't having much problem exterminating the ants, now with the ability to shape his sand from all of the time traveling. He chanced it into a large drill that easily went through the ant's head completely to kill them in one blow. Now he was just standing there with his arms folded using the sand from his gourd to do most of the strikeing.

"There must be a hive somewhere nearby, we have to take out the queen." Iruka said, jumping up just above a charging ant and landing carefully on it's head, driving his Kunai into it quickly before stumbling off. Of course it didn't kill the creature and with it's quickness it turned towards him and came rushing. Iruka jumped back out of range, only to have an ant jump on his back from behind and knock him to the ground.

He felt the manacles grazing his neck about to sever, when he was just narrowly saved by two Kunai's thrown by Kakashi with enough force to knock it off in a splatter of blood. Iruka rolled over on to his back and sent his left fist upward, punching the first ant in the chin while grabbing his same Kunai with his right. Iruka drove it into the ant's head, between the eyes and dropping it dead.

Two piercing blows to the head was the key to killing the ants.

"How do we get there?" Naruto asked, jumping into the air as high as he could managed. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" With a quick set of hand seals, 6 more Narutos appeared next to him, all of then throwing a wave of Kunais and Shrunkens at the wave of approaching ants coming from ahead of him. The rain of blades easily cut down the numbers too a few that Gaara could handle with a wave of sand.

Gaara handlessly thrust the sand drill into an ant's head, taking care of the other demons with that same technique. "I see it!" Naruto said as he landed, "That way! About a hundred feet ahead, it's a big hole in the ground."

"That's not too hard." Kakashi said. "Iruka, Naruto, you two take the lead and cover us. Me and Gaara will clear out the hive." Kakashi directed.

"How are you going to do that?" Iruka asked.

"I can use fire to clear out as many as I can." Kakashi said "Then Gaara can collapse the hive."

With a small nod, Iruka and Naruto lead the charge toward the demon nest, not encountering any resistance until the entrance was in view. 10 or so of the ants were swarming around, all of them alert to their presence. Iruka was the first one attacked, coming so close to an ant that he barely had time to take a step back to avoid being hit. The two manacles over it's mouth ripped his shirt and left a large gash across his stomach.

Iruka winced, driving the knife into it's head then pulling it back swiftly and delivering a second blow before it could attack again. "Naruto, don't attack from the front, hit it from behind. Two hits to the head should do it."

Naruto gave him a small nod before jumping to the side of one ant and driving his Kunai into the ant's head, then punching it with the second blade in his other hand. Before fighting any more, Iruka and Naruto moved in front of the hole to prevent the other ants from following Kakashi and Gaara. "Alright Demons." Naruto said with a smirk, pulling out an explosive tag. "Come and get me."

! - ! - !

From in side the hole was a 10 foot drop to the ground, only a small platform in the center of a maze of other platform and pillars. All of them filled with the over sized ants who quickly swarmed towards Kakashi and Gaara. "Kakashi." Gaara said promptingly, though his voice was still calm.

"Relax." Kakashi started doing a few hand seals, taking a deep breath while drawing Charka in to his mouth "Goukakyuu no Jutsu." He exhaled, blowing out a blast of fire like a flame thrower, sweeping it over the ants in front of him and then turning around abruptly. Gaara had to crouch to avoid being hit. Despite that, the fire seemed to be effective, a second or two under the heat and the ants either fled or died.

"Your on." Kakashi said, keeping the waves of ants back while Gaara started to draw and control the minerals of the hive from the bottom up. It took a lot of concentration, he wasn't able to defend himself while doing an attack of this magnitude, especially against this many. Kakashi didn't have it easy though, the quick ants only turned back to avoid the flames and came right back. He could only keep them at bay for so long.

"Sand coffin!"

Sand rushed up from the floor, surrounding the platform completely. Kakashi immediately jump to the surface, followed by Gaara.

! - ! - !

By the time the ground began to rumble, Naruto and Gaara had already taken down all 10 of the ants, They were free to vacate the area. Kakashi landed next Iruka, and Gaara landed in front of them, just the ground ahead of them began to shift and blow apart with the uprising rush of sand. One attack buried every remaining ant along with the queen.

Mission complete.

! - ! - !


	5. Chapter 5: DSI part 3

Chapter 5: D.S.I part 3

Sasuke walked along side Iruka with the same clipboard Konohamaru had given him, taking his very first record. He could only help but think that as soon as D.S.I became profitable, he would have to talk to Naruto about printing some forms. It would make his job a lot easier. "What was the Client's name?"

"Takoyama Mayota" Iruka replied, stepping over a fallen tree and entering the area they'd been meeting in since last night. It had become an assembly point for the group, at least one person could always be found here at any given time.

Sasuke wrote it down then skipped down a line "How much did he pay?"

"One million dollars."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked up at him, "He paid a million dollars? What demon did he hire you to exterminate?"

"Yes he paid all of it thanks to Kakashi. "Iruka shook his head "And I'm not sure what the correct name for them was, but they were insect type, ant demon. About 2 to 3 feet tall and very quick."

Sasuke sat down on the tree, looking over to Neji who was sitting on the same safe as before with a sheet of paper in hand. Neji glanced up at the two acknowledgingly then looked back down at the paper in hand. Then Sasuke looked over at Iruka who was leaning against a tree waiting for his next question "Was it poisonous?"

"No. "

"How did it attack and how did you kill it?"

"It's main strategy was to rush at us head on and use it's manacles. They weren't very bright, and there weakness was attacks from behind. Fire was a weakness too, and besides burning the only other way to kill it was to pierce it's skull in two places." Iruka explained.

"You could only kill it with 2 pierces?" Sasuke sounded skeptical "Are you sure you just didn't go deep enough on the first strike?"

"No, I'm sure on this. I can remember at lest 2 instances where a kunai went through the skull completely and came out the other side, yet they didn't die until a second piercing was made." Iruka said with a small nod as if to convince himself of what he was saying.

Sasuke gave him a second look then wrote it down, it didn't sound probable, but on the other hand demons weren't probable. "Alright, that's all I need." Sasuke said, Iruka nodded and jumped off, vanishing with his speed to some unknown place. "Neji, what are you doing?"

Neji glanced over at Sasuke, it was uncharacteristic of him to bother with a question like that, but if Sasuke could, so could Neji. "Lee left me this safe, Though he didn't tell me the combination is, so I'm trying to gather information on what it could be." Neji sat the paper down behind him and jumped off the gray steel box. "I'll have to do it later though, I need to track down some reference material."

The boy shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking in the opposite direction, leaving Sasuke alone to finish his work.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Naruto let out a sleepy yawn and wrapped his arms around Gaara who was sleeping lazily with his head on his chest. He couldn't help but let out a small grin when he looked down at the boy, seeing him sleep was like seeing a whole different person. His defenses were down completely, apposed to when he was awake he always seemed to have his guard up even when he was with Naruto.

He seemed stoic and unemotional when he was awake, some what detached about most things around him. But when he was asleep he clinched on to Naruto needingly, sometimes he smiled, some times he mumbled something or another action that wouldn't have been seen when he was conscious.

Naruto always found himself watching Gaara at some point when he was asleep. It was surreal to see a person like Gaara act so…un-Gaara like, he could barely imagine Gaara being anything else then the person he was now. Not that he would want too, Gaara just wouldn't be as much fun if he didn't act the way he did, it was something about that stoic and emotionless nature that drew Naruto in.

He often wondered what cause Gaara to act so differently when he was asleep, why he smiled like that. It wasn't that evil smile that he used to show right before he killed someone, this one was warm, happy, as if he was enjoying himself. Naruto had to admit, it was really kinda cute, and the way Gaara hugged him tighter when he did it only made it more so.

"I wonder what your dreaming about." Naruto said thoughtfully, it had to be an interesting experience seeing as Gaara had never had one before. "I wonder if you can tell the difference between a dream and the real world." Naruto remembered instances where a dream seemed too realistic and he couldn't tell if it had actually happened. For someone having there first one in his life it might not be as easy for him as it was for everyone else.

Naruto ran his fingers through the unruly red hair below him.

"Naruto." Gaara mumbled softly.

Naruto's grin grew into a smile. He never thought he could be so happy doing nothing.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Sasuke." Konohamaru called, walking into the clearing where Sasuke sat, just finishing his report.

Sasuke let his head fall back on to the tree, allowing him to get an upside down look at the boy approaching. "Huh?"

Konohamaru jumped over the tree landing in Sasuke's lap. "Whatcha doing?"

"Work." Sasuke said in a tone softer then his normal cold one.

"Finished?" Konohamaru turned around so that he was facing Sasuke. Sasuke nodded, pushing the clipboard aside while Konohamaru wrapped his arm around his neck and kissed him. "I really missed you." the boy said with a large smile.

"Me too." Sasuke winced inside of his head, talking like this was defiantly something he couldn't get used to no matter how hard he tried. "Did"

"No they didn't hurt me." Konohamaru said annoyedly, every time the subject of his capture came up he asked the same thing. Sasuke could easily tell there was something Konohamaru had left out when he told him what had happened, and there was, but Konohamaru really wasn't going to tell _Sasuke_. It was mainly about Itachi, and it would _not_ go over well.

Sasuke shook his head in defeat, he didn't want to pester Konohamaru about it, he hated when people pestered him about things. "I'm sure you came here to tell me something."

"How did you" Konohamaru stopped, he had forgotten about Sasuke and his developing Sharingan. "Well yeah, Kakashi went to see another person about a job, we have our first mission." He said with an excited grin.

"Your not coming." Sasuke said immediately, watching Konohamaru's face drop disappointedly.

"Aww! Come on, I've been training, I can handle it." Konohamaru pleaded.

"It's too dangerous." Sasuke objected. "Besides, you're the assistant manger."

"But I wanna come!" Konohamaru sounded more childish then he intended too, childishness wasn't helping! "Assistant manger isn't important."

Sasuke smirked. "Konohamaru, every job is important. No matter how small it may seem every job has it's purpose."

"What's the purpose of mine then?" Konohamaru pouted.

"Every small job helps a bigger job, you help Iruka. Iruka cant get everything done on his own and if he didn't have you to help him then he couldn't be an effective manager. If we didn't have an effective manager then we would all be disorganized and unprepared, half the time we wouldn't know what to do. And if that happens then we wouldn't be able to do a good job on our missions or we wouldn't have any at all. If we don't do a good job on our missions then we lose credibility. Then everything would get much worse from there. " Sasuke explained.

Konohamaru looked up at him questing "Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then I guess I have to get to work." Konohamaru jumped off of Sasuke. "I have to go find Neji and Kiba." The boy ran off as soon as the words were out of his mouth, going to find the other two members of his team.

Sasuke just watched, at least Konohamaru wouldn't be mad when he forced him to stay behind.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"I thought you didn't want to go back there." Kiba said, walking along side Neji through the baron field that was now Konoha. They could easily see that people now had truly lost all hope, most of them just sat around now. The younger children still played but that was the only sign of life left.

"I don't." Neji said. "But I have too. Some of the underground passages below the Hyuuga property were used as an archive or storage for old material. I'm not sure of there is anything that contains information on demons but I'm going to need to find out if I want to research them for our missions."

"How much dose it have to be to be an archive?" Kiba asked.

"The minimum is several hundred files, records, and/or books."

"…That's a lot of reading." Kiba shuttered at the thought of going through that much material, He barely paid attention in school. That much work would be hell of Kiba, Neji on the other had was use to doing tasks like this.

"I'll try to be as quick as possible." Neji wasn't saying that for Kiba's sake, more so because he felt the desire to be as far away from his family. After he came back to Konoha he found himself wanting to separate himself from the tradition and beliefs more so the ever. Now was the perfect time to do it, no one even knew he was alive more or less what he was doing.

"Hey Wait!"

Both of them looked back towards the cause of the sound and found Konohamaru running after him. The boy stopped about a foot away, placing his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath. "I've been looking all over for you guys."

Kiba looked towards there destination just about a mile away "Why?"

"We have a mission. Kakashi wants to see us." He said.

Neji and Kiba looked at each other "I guess it will have to wait." Neji didn't sound the least bit annoyed or disappointed that a mission had come up while he was trying to finish this particular chore.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"You must be the team from D.S.I." A middle aged man said as he saw Sasuke's team approaching. He was around his mid forties with short graying hair, standing out side of the gate of a large 2 story mansion that appeared to have at lest 16 rooms in each. "I'm surprised that they would send some kids to do this job but at this point I'll take any help I can get."

"You must be MR. Daku." Sasuke said, recognizing him more by his demeanor then the physical description Kakashi gave.

"Those monsters took over my home, they're everywhere. I just hope your worth your pay." Mr. Daku snorted, his attitude was anticipated by the 3. This was a typical reaction to a new organization who wasn't known and didn't have any credibility yet, especially when they sent someone in this age group.

"Can you give us a description of them?" Neji asked.

"Well." The man looked up with an expression of contemplation, then turned his eyes toward Neji again he found the right description. "They were orange wolfs or foxes, something like that, with a lot of tails, like 8 or 9 of them. And they had these strange red eyes."

The three of them glanced at each other for a moment, " Sounds like the Nine-tail's pups to me." Kiba said, the thought of them brought back bad memories of his leg injury which had healed nicely all considering.

"Do you know how many of them are inside?" Sasuke asked, he'd fought them before, he could hold his own against a fair amount…when they were separated.

"1 or 2 in each room at lest, I'm not sure about the basement but I heard some down there too." Mr.Daku said "Oh and the power is cut so be careful down there." The man unlocked the large, wooden double doors of the stone gate allowing access to the house's front door.

Neji, Kiba and Sasuke walked through, hearing Mr. Daku close it behind them. "No turning back now huh Akamaru." Kiba said with an anticipating smirk, he'd fought these enemies before but having it for his first mission make him feel like he'd never heard of them before. It was just like his first mission as a Genin.

Sasuke opened the large doors to the mansion, allowing sunlight to shine through the frame into the darkened front hall. The windows gave some light also, enough to see clearly through out the first floor, there really wasn't much to see. Everything was in shambles, they could see scraps of what used to be furnishings, desks, things of that nature. Large claw marks were slashed along the walls, the carpet was torn into pieces, the only thing that wasn't broken was the windows.

Sasuke turned back towards Kiba and Neji, sizing them up for his next directions, "It'll be faster if we split up. Neji, since there's no light in the basement you'll have to handle it." Sasuke knew Neji's Bakyugan also worked when there was no light present and since he could se nearly 360 degrees around him nothing could sneak up on him. "Kiba, you take the first floor and I'll take the second."

Neji and Kiba nodded then separated, the stairway to the basement was in the back of this room so Neji headed that way. Kiba took the left path down the hall opposite of Sasuke who took the stairs on the right wall.

! - ! - !

Neji moved carefully and quietly down the stairway, he could hear something...some things stirring below. Before even enabling his Bakyugan he got an idea of what was in the basement by the sounds, he could hear the demons bumping into boxes which seemed to be along the walls. The demons were avoiding the center of the room and open areas, just like in Konoha.

Drawing a Kunai from his holder, Neji used his Bakyugan to see exactly how many of them he'd be facing. He counted 3, one of them on the left wall of the room, another on the right and the last in front of the stairway, he hadn't noticed that before. Using his physical eyes he could see the faint glow of red eyes looking up the stairway. It had it's nose in the air trying to identity his scent, he had to attack now before it realized he was here.

With trained stealth he jumped off the stairway, diving over the demonic fox but coming close enough to drive the Kunai into it's head. Neji rolled in the air and landed on his feet facing the faltering nine-tail's back. It's death filled the air with the scent of blood and the other two foxes ear's perked at the sound of the third fox's body falling the ground.

They instantly turned towards Neji and ran at him with fangs bearing, they're speed was still just as fast as the last time he'd faced them. He barely had time to step to the side to avoid the first fox before the second pounced on him from behind and knocked him to the ground. Neji rolled over and knocked the demon off of him with his elbow, then sent a sharp kick into the other one that attacked him through the darkness.

Neji flipped to his feet, holding the bloody Kunai in his hand loosely before tossing it in to the wall in the back of the room to throw off the demons. It seemed to work by how they were looking around and not move directly toward him, they couldn't depend on sight so they were using hearing and scent to track him and they'd been using the first scent that drew them which had been blood.

Neji pressed his back against the wall, pulling out 2 more kunais while the foxes crept toward the bloody scent like they were sneaking up on a pray. 'Now.' Neji ran off the wall as soon as the nine-tails pups were directly in front of him. He managed to get right in front of the side of the closet's fox's head, thrusting the knife into it's skull directly above the eye.

By the time he made that move the other one had already dived at him and before he realized it he was being pressed down on the ground while a fox went for his neck. Even with his Bakyugan he couldn't anticipate that kind of speed. Neji lifted one hand, grabbing it's lower jaw and holding it back before he drove the same Kunai into it's face.

"That wasn't too hard."

He heard a loud growling behind him.

! - ! - !

Kiba and Akamaru didn't bother trying to hide his presence from the demons as he walked into the living room. He could smell them, some of them past the door leading to the dining room, some of them standing right in front of them growling fiercely. It was standing in the rubble of the couch, leaning toward him offensively.

"Akamaru, Mimic me!" Kiba shouted, pulling the small dog off his head and tossing him into the air. Akamaru let out a bark, triggering the Jutsu and causing his body to envelope in a cloud of smoke. A larger form emerged just above the demon, an exact copy of Kiba only with more animalist eyes. It caught the pup off guard causing it to flinch just as Akamaru came down on it, he knocked it to the ground and pinned it there.

"Good job boy, alright get ready!" Kiba stretched both of his hands out to his left side, pushing all of his Chakra there also. "Now! Gatsuuga!" Kiba shouted, thrusting both hands forward and unleashing a wind like blast toward Akamaru and the demon. Akamaru scooted back some, tucking his head behind the pup's and tried his best to hold it down while it thrashed wildly under him.

Akamaru let go as soon as he felt the vibration of Kiba's blast strike the Nine-tails, rolling to the side and narrowly avoiding a discharge that devoured the demon in it's wake. It was knocked into the wall under a window, laying un-moving in a near sleeping state, Kiba quickly put an end to that, driving a Kunai into it's head and quickly pulling it back out.

A loud growling could be heard from Akamaru behind him, he was crouched down pushing another one of those foxes by the shoulders. The Nine-Tail's pup let out a strained bark, unleashing it's charka in an explosive way. It was usually un-aimed and often missed, but this time it managed to hit nearly dead-on, it erupted in-between the two, knocking Akamaru back in a wave of debris from the carpeted floor and surrounding rubble.

Kiba reached out and caught his identical partner, setting him down on his feet. The incinerating blast managed to burn off most of the clothing on his front torso revealing just how accurate a copy he was. "You alright?" Akamaru barked and nodded. "You what? Are you serous?"

The mimicking Akamaru gave an affirmative bark, he'd said that he had just learned the demon's main attack. Not surprising considering Akamaru's nature of attacking was to mimic and learn those he'd seen before, similar to the Sharingan. "Then go for it."

! - ! - !

The third floor was just a hallway with 3 rooms on each side, the corridor split into 2 paths at the end of the stairs. At the end of both sides the hall turned to the left leading to a bathroom, this was a large place to have 12 bed rooms and 2 bathrooms. Sasuke didn't know where to start, so he just picked the bed room right in front of him.

Sasuke walked to the door, turning the knob only to have the door knocked off from the other side and pin him to the ground with an unexpected weight. Of course it was one of those damn foxes who had been waiting on the other side for him, smart.

It's head dived trough the door with it's mouth wide, biting down on to Sasuke's out reached arm. "Ufff!" Sasuke grunted, his charka flowing heavily in his left fist as he charged a Chidori. His hand eased out of a fist as a glowing blue orb now was being held there, lighting radiated out of it in stray bolts, all of them striking the demon in the face. After a few of them the nine-tails pup let go of his arm and jumped off of him, but Sasuke was quick enough to throw the Chidori and strike it in the neck while it was still in the air.

There was little left of it after that.

"Damn foxes." Sasuke said annoyedly, looking at the bleeding bite mark on his arm. He had to worry about surprise attacks now.

! - ! - !

"You three really did the job." Mr. Daku said. "I can go back in to my house now."

"I'm just glad we did a good job." Kiba said with a smile, he was mostly worried about getting credibility up. More credibility, more money, more help for Konoha.

"But who's going to clean up all of this?" Daku looked around at the fox demon carcasses and blood.

"That wasn't in our contract." Sasuke said with a tired annoyance, he didn't want anyone to attempt to talk him in to do it. This job had been a little fatiguing. "Let's go, I have a paperwork to do."

Mission complete


	6. Chapter 6: Headquarters

Chapter 6: Headquarters

"2 million! Not back for a day's work eh." Naruto happily summed up the profits as the last red and orange rays of the sun set over the dead forest. He sat in they're usual meeting spot with an orange clip board and a pin nestled comfortably behind his ear. "And I get to decide how we spend it!"

"Why in the hell did he put you in charge of the money." Sasuke snorted, filling out a report on today's mission with as much detail as he could. It was much easier since he'd experienced it first hand instead of relying on other's testaments "Just don't waste it dobe."

"Shut up jerk! I know what I'm doing!" Naruto shouted back, Gaara shook his head and sighed exasperatedly

"I don't think so, seeing as you never had any money." Sasuke kept that same icy tone, not rising above normal levels. Naruto on the other hand was exact opposite.

"I know what I'm doing, I'll show you." Naruto looked back down and the clipboard, scribbling something down quickly "I'm giving 75 of the money to Konoha then I'm going to leave the rest to us. See, I know what I'm doing!"

Sasuke only shook his head and returned back to work, catching Naruto stick out his tongue though the other boy didn't think he was paying attention.

"Hey guys!" Konohamaru called from behind Sasuke, moving through the weave of fallen and still standing trees to get to the clearing. "You guys finished?" Sasuke nodded, ripping off the sheet of paper and giving it to Konohamaru, Naruto did the same. Taking the two Konohamaru glanced over the papers, not really reading any of it though. "Thanks."

With the papers clinched tightly under his arm, Konohamaru turned and walked back in the direction he came. He did take a small glance back before he left completely, and the only person who really seemed to know what it meant was Sasuke. The boy gave a light shrug and jumped after him in a blur of blue and white, re-appearing clearly some distance off next to Konohamaru.

Now completely alone with Gaara, Naruto could do nothing more then stare upward and play with his fingers. Any normal person would have recognized that he had something on his mind, Naruto was never this quiet. Gaara on the other hand was always this silent so he didn't think anything of it.

"Hey Gaara." Naruto moved over enough so that he could lay his head in Gaara's lap, letting his hands come to rest behind his neck as he looked up at the taller boy.

"Yes?" Gaara glanced down at him, a normal expression on his face. For Gaara that was a big change from the usual.

"Earlier...what were you dreaming about? You don't have to answer if you don't want too." Naruto glanced away from him awkwardly, another action that made Gaara a little confused 'Why would he be embarrassed over such a simple question?' Gaara had no problem being completely direct with what ever he had to say, Naruto, though often blunt wasn't always that direct with what was in his head

"You." Gaara said plainly.

"Really?" Naruto half suspected it, he just didn't quite believe it the first time.

"Your the one that let me have a dream in the first place." Any other words Gaara wanted to say were cut off by the slight surprise of Naruto pulling him down into a sudden kiss. Naruto's hand planted on the ground in-between Gaara's leg allowed him to push himself up with support, his other arm wrapped around Gaara's neck and drove his other hand into Gaara's hair.

Gaara gave a soft grunt of enjoyment and wrapped his arms around Naruto, pulling him up a little higher and allowing him to go farther in to the kiss. The blond was still so much better this then him, Gaara was always willing to learn.

A sudden shift in Naruto's weight caused Gaara to fall backwards off the fallen tree they were sitting on unexpectedly. "Whoa!" Naruto barley felt anything but a small thump, Gaara had broken his fall while the sand materialized around his back and took any impact he could have felt.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, laughing as he did so. "Gaara, you should have seen the look on your face." Gaara looked at him for a moment, wondering what kind of expression he had. It did catch him off guard.

Gaara shook his head in slight amusement, with one unnoticeable look in his eyes he allowed his sand to surround Naruto' s waist and pull him down to the ground unexpectedly. "No fair." Naruto said, watching the sand flow away from him once he was flat on his back. Gaara smirked at him, dropping to his knees and crawling over Naruto.

Once again their lips pressed together and their tongues mingled between open mouths. Gaara began to follow Naruto's movements, changing and shifting every so often as he became better and more confident in what he was doing. He wasn't good at causing pleasure, the experience was still new to him so he was always as careful as he could be. It was always so easy for him to cause pain, it was in every movement he made and he could easily cause it with out trying or unwillingly.

Naruto could easily see his apprehension especially after he nearly broke down following the first time. He slid his hands down Gaara's side, his fingers gripping the edge of his shirt giving him a silent reassurance to keep going as he slowly started to remove it. But Gaara didn't, in fact he did the opposite and pulled away from the kiss halfheartedly "Naruto...I can't do this."

"Gaara"Naruto looked up at him with a serous face and a concerned expression. "If your worried about hurting me"

"That's not what I'm worried about." Gaara's tone may have sounded mildly annoyed but his eyes showed that he was actually reluctant...afraid maybe.

"Then what is it?"

"Last time...my mind"

"Don't worry about that." Naruto's usual smirk spread across his lips as he leant upward towards Gaara "Even if you do start losing it again, I'm here for you."

Gaara allowed himself to continue, he may not have trusted himself completely but he did trust Naruto and that was all he needed. More willingly this time Gaara allowed Naruto to pull his shirt off of him then pulled his body closer too the smaller frame. "No matter what happens remember I'm going to here for you. Your just like me remember, we'd never abandon each other." Naruto's voice barely over a whisper as he softly nibble on his ear.

The soft sound of distant thunder rumbled in the darkened twilight between dusk and night fall followed by a few small drops of barely noticeable but increasing rain. It would have felt good along Gaara's bare back if small drops of sand hadn't formed above his skin to block the water. With out that distraction Gaara was able to concentrate on Naruto completely, starting by unbuttoning his orange pants.

Naruto lifted his legs to help Gaara remove his pants, glancing past him for a second or to at the surreal sight. The small droplets had grown into a mild drizzle, yet before it could get past Gaara the sand lashed out and stopped it. 'I wonder why it doesn't happen to me?' The thought made him feel special in away, Naruto was the only person or thing that Gaara let his defenses down too.

Gaara leant forward, pushing Naruto's shirt up with a tentive lick along his chest, imitating what Naruto had done to him before and hoping that he was half as good. Naruto gave him a few moans to encourage him to keep going, he found it strange that Gaara could be so shy in some things. He showed that he did have strong inner feeling for him though his outward persona was cold enough to rival Sasuke.

Gaara moved downward, breaking into soft warm kisses past his hips while he pulled his own pants down just far enough to let his erection free. He crawled upward bringing himself face to face with Naruto and pressing his lips against the soft ones below him , becoming bolder with his actions. Gaara licked the outside of Naruto's lips, silently asking permission for entry. He was much different this time, he was almost protective and defensive.

Drawing back from Naruto, Gaara silently crawled upward still until his cock was sitting in front of the smaller boy's face just above his chest. Naruto wrapped his arms around Gaara's waist, slipping his hands down his pants and pressing two fingers against his entrance. Naruto took Gaara's member into his mouth, running his tongue over and around the head while he pushed his fingers in Gaara with a swift motion. "Uuahhhh..." Gaara moaned from the sudden jolt of pleasure, his body fell forward from the overwhelming sensation, he planted his hands on the ground above Naruto's shoulders and caught himself. He still couldn't get used to feelings like this, they were so foreign to him and they always caught him off guard no matter how much he braced himself for it.

"Ahhh!" He could hardly keep himself from screaming loudly, he never had to use self-control in this manner before. "Na-Naru!" Gaara clinched the last strands of remaining grass completely soaked by the rain between his fingers. He hadn't even noticed it was raining since the sand was acting as an umbrella for the both of them. Gaara pulled his cock from Naruto's mouth, letting out a deep breath he never realized he was holding until Naruto pulled his hands back and ended the pleasurable sensation.

Gaara moved down in-between Naruto's legs, lifting them slightly as he pressed his slick member against his entrance. Though he seemed apprehensive to continue.

Naruto could sense what was wrong, He could read Gaara like he could read himself though they were still completely different people no matter how much alike. "Gaara, you don't have to worry about hurting me."

"I...don't know." Gaara shook his head lightly, a small bit of confusion slipping into his strait tone.

"Why? What do you mean?" Naruto could tell immediately, Gaara was off, more so then his usual offness.

"When you asked me about what I was dreaming about, I didn't tell you everything because it was..." Gaara's words trailed off, trying to gather his thoughts. That's why he didn't go in detail with Naruto, his mind was in disarray though he had no problem remembering his dream, that was apart of the problem "It started the exact same way everything happened from fifteen minutes ago up until now...and this is where things become...go wrong."

"Like how?" Naruto could describe the distant look on Gaara's face at the moment, it just told him that he was distressed about it

"You end up dead."

Naruto tensed slightly, that was truly unexpected though he knew to expect anything from Gaara. "...Gaara, it wasn't real so don't worry."

"That's the strange part about it, I felt everything, I actually felt everything. I couldn't tell if that was the dream or if this is. I could still actually kill you" Gaara sounded a worried about that.

Naruto looked up at him for a moment, This _was_ Gaara having his first dream. "Gaara, I trust you and I know you wouldn't do that to me." He knew the best way to show him that was to let him, urge him to continue. Naruto bucked his hips forward and his entrance on to Gaara's cock, drawing a startled gasp in return.

Gaara timidly wrapped his hands around Naruto's waist and thrust in to the smaller frame at a dawdling pace. It was pleasurable torture, his body urged, pleaded with him to go faster but he held back.

"Gaara...Faster." Naruto moaned behind closed eye-lids, it wasn't easy for Gaara took keep the same speed though he felt he had to. This is exactly what caused his so real dream to end so badly...

Naruto let out a ragged, heavy breath as his hand moved down his torso and around his own erection, quickly pumping the length with nibble fingers. His heart was racing, he could hear it pounding in his ears and pulsing in other parts of his body, He couldn't stop himself from bucking his hips upward into his hand. Warm, creamy white fluid flowed out of his cock in sharp spurts as Naruto bit his lips to keep from being too loud. Most of it covered his hands, the rest spilled on to his chest stopping just short of his pulled up shirt.

Gaara moved with him, adjusting to every turn and shift in a careful manner, moving slowly and easily. He felt extremely worried and guilty because of what happened...it seemed so real that he wasn't sure if it had or hadn't actually happened. He lost control of himself to the point that he was worse then he was before, it was horrible what he did to the unsuspecting Naruto. And the scary thing was that the change was so natural that he didn't realize it had happened until it was to late.

He slowed in his pace even farther, but it didn't make a difference at that point. A wave of pleasure erupted through Gaara's body causing him to tighten his grip "Na-Naru!" he still couldn't stop himself from moaning loudly as cum shot from his softening member in the boy below him. Leaving Gaara panting and glistening from sweat, not a drop of made it past the sand to either of them.

"See, nothing happened." Naruto said, catching his breath more and more with each word.

"It seemed so..." Gaara was still fixated on how real it was, it got to him.

"Gaara...If your worried, don't be." Naruto wiped the cum off of himself and pulled his shirt down, watching Gaara, waiting for that expression to change back into it's normal one. But it didn't.

"Alright..." Gaara looked away from him, down at the increasingly wet ground around them.

Naruto sat up abruptly, wrapping his arms around Gaara's neck who was still on his hands and knees over him. "Hey Gaara."

"What?"

"You know that name you called me."

"Yes..."

"I like it."

"Really?" He never meant to say Naru, it just came out that way.

"Yeah."

"Great, rain." Kiba moaned, sitting under the Hokage monument with Neji. There was a set of small rooms used for emergencies along the mountain, all of them were surprisingly empty now. "Just what we need."

"Hn." Neji silently gave an indifferent reply as he sorted through the books he'd taken from his family's archive. He practically had to steal all 10 volumes of the book he needed, because he of course had to go through his uncle to get to them. It wasn't a joyous homecoming, the man drilled him because he hadn't and still wasn't there to protect the main house at a time like this. he should _be doing everything he can to protect them at any cost_.

Neji of course was looking at a bigger picture for once and not focusing on the Hyuuga family, and he of course was denied any materials because he _apparently had his priorities wrong and should be focusing only on his responsibility to this family_. Who knew, and all this time he thought his responsibility as a shinobi entitled him to focus on Konoha and all of the Leaf, which included the Hyuuga family.

Finally he just left, it wasn't worth spending another minute in his imprisonmenttraditionto his family. He's spent so much time striving to pass the main house who didn't give him a second glance and now he had his opportunity, his loop hole in his ties to the Hyuuga family, to leave it all.

He managed to escape without being tortured by the mark branded on his head then being forced _to follow through with his obligation to solely protect the main house with his life if need be_. There was a convenient distraction that was a little to convenient, allowing him to just walk way with out anyone noticing. He wasn't disappointed at all, Kiba had somehow managed to obtain exactly what Neji was looking for with little more then an appearance behind him and the word "Surprise."

Neji smiled softly at the remembrance as he flipped randomly through the pages of a book with nothing better to do.

Kiba did the same, with Akamaru sitting on his head and less knowledge or interest. "Nightmare demons..." He flips a few pages "The artifact Konoha leaf holds powers" He flipped through a few more pages. "Poltergeist, sprits and ghost" he was nearly at the end of the book this time "Sprit swarm demons" After this shift of pages there were only 3 left " The reaper demon... The Tolong-Niko a.k.a Chaos demon, That sounds strange... I'll come back to that." Kiba closed the book and set it aside to pick up another.

"Glad to see your involved in your reading." Neji didn't look up from his book, his voice filled with the usual cynical sarcasm but with a friendly edge.

Kiba grinned "I'm glad this isn't my job." He rested his hands behind his back and Akamaru jumped down into his lap.

Neji gave a silent indifference and turned the page. He wrote something down on a clip board, going through the tedious task of making reference points for the 10 volumes. It cut down on his searching time in the future so it meant a lot of work now.

"Hey Neji." Kiba called out, his eyes closed and his mind already drifting off for the day "You think we have a shot at helping Konoha?"

"Yes." Neji said, glancing over at Kiba. "If we do well enough."

"..." Kiba sifted a little and peaked one eye open glancing at the pale, rain distorted moon light shining through the window.

"Kiba...How did you get these books anyway?" Neji asked.

"Heh, my secret." Kiba cooed teasingly.

"Right." Neji rolled his eyes and shook his head, "I wonder if I can get it out of you."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Hn, maybe later." Neji knew he was tired so he didn't want to do anything...yet, later tonight though...

Kiba laid his head back against the wooden walls and let himself drift towards sleep while Neji continued annotating the volumes of books. He just couldn't help but smile at the fact that he was free from the darkness of hated and bitter vindictiveness that consumed him. It was all because of Kiba, and that's why he was his precious person...

"Iruka-sensei."

Iruka was sitting lazily in one of the few trees they were still standing, one leg drawn up on the branch and the other hanging down comfortably. The still intact canopy was shielding him from the rain and most of the wind while looked over a small stack of papers with a highlighter. He couldn't help but glance down at the call of his name. "Huh?"

Konohamaru jumped up on to the branch, landing just in front of the edge. He was standing on an area that was thin, shaky and very unstable, it could and most likely would cave under his weight at any second. But despite of that Konohamaru was still balancing on it with one foot in front of the other and some ease.

"Konohamaru, that's amazing. Before you couldn't come close to this kind of balance." Iruka complemented, he could detect Chakra being used.

"Yeah, pretty cool eh?" Konohamaru lent forward on one foot, more in a manner to show off though it wasn't easy, and handed him the papers. "What are you doing?"

"Deciding what clients we should take next." Iruka replied plainly.

"Iruka-sensei, we should build a base." This suggestion was a little unexpected but Konohamaru had been thinking about it for a while and it had to come up eventually, Iruka just didn't think so soon.

"Hmmm?"

"Yeah. We don't have any other place to work, we should use some of the money to build a headquarters." Konohamaru slowly pulled his body back so that he was standing on both feet. But as soon as he moved the edge of the branch snapped and he was sent plummeting to the damp ground in a loud crash.

Iruka looked down "Are you ok?"

A second later Konohamaru leapt back to the branch, this time landing on a more stable area,  
"Oooowwwwww! My head." the boy clinched his head tightly, waiting for the pain to fade.

"That's a good idea Konohamaru, I'll get right on it. I'm sure the construction workers in Konoha will be happy for the business." Iruka folded the papers neatly and placed them in his back pocket. He had no place else to put these files, another reason they needed to establish some type of base.


	7. Chapter 7: Official

Chapter 7: Official

"Hey, where did this come from?" Naruto rubbed his head gently after running into a wall, he'd just woke up and walked to their usual spot, only to come face to face with a wall. "Oww."

"You are such a dobe."

Naruto turned back with an annoyed expression lining his tired features "What is _this_?"" He pointed to the building standing in the middle of the half destroyed forest, It was one story but about half an acre width and length.

"You can't be serous." Sasuke sighed "No one told you?"

Naruto shook his head.

"You should be able to smart enough to figure it out on your own. I overestimated you idiot."

Naruto glared back at him and turned back to the new structure, walking around toward the front. "I was gone for one day and you already built a base? Could have told me sooner jerk!" he shouted, looking up at the D.S.I sign. Curious to see the inside, Naruto opened the door and walked inside. "Hey, not bad." Naruto looked around inside, finding himself walking into a lobby clad in white and green. A sofa resided against both walls with a table in the center, and a desk stood just in front of the back wall in front of a door. It didn't look bad at all, especially considering it was built in one day.

Gaara was sitting on one of the sofas, Gourd resting on the ground next to him, he wasn't doing anything in particular and probably just waiting for Naruto. "Gaara? You knew about this?" Naruto said in disbelief "You went on the mission with me? How did you know?"

"I was told while you were asleep." Gaara said calmly, turns out he wasn't waiting he was just resting.

Sasuke came in behind Naruto, looking around the room with a subtle glance. "Were is Konohamaru?"

"Basement." Gaara replied calmly.

Naruto looked at him in surprise "We have a basement?"

Sasuke let out an exasperated breath in annoyment walked through the door behind the desk.

! - ! - !

It was his first time down here, Sasuke walked cautiously down the steps into the underground room, feeling along the wall for a light switch. It was mounted right by the door, but when he flipped it nothing happened. 'No power yet.'

He wondered why Konohamaru would be down here in the dark, maybe to be alone or just to think... '...' Konohamaru wasn't the be alone just to think type of person, Sasuke doubted the boy wanted to sit still that long.

Sasuke reached outward when he got to the bottom of the stairs, there was a door separating the stairwell from the actual basement. It quickly found the door knob and walked in, apparently Konohamaru made due with out lights. The room itself was as large as the entire building itself, that was a lot of space, the made himself right at home here.

In the very back of the room was a large dish that had a fire burning inside of it, that was enough to illuminate half the room. Behind it was a large poster with the Leaf insignia on it, 4 smaller flames were mounted along both with walls each of their Konoha forehead protector above it. This apparently was Konohamaru's alternative to wearing his favorite shirt, which he had finally changed.

He was building a training room down here, a lot of equipment was scatted around on the ground but none of them were set up. Konohamaru was currently trying to lift a punching bag off the ground, it was almost funny, he couldn't even get his arms around it and when he tried his hands slipped off the leather. "Need help?"

Konohamaru looked up and smiled "Hi Sasuke, like my room?"

"Your really going to stay down here?" Sasuke knelt down and picked up the punching bag, fastenings it to a hook on the ceiling that some how Konohamaru managed to get up there.

"Yeah, look at all the space!" Konohamaru yelled just to hear the echo that followed. "And it's the only place I can fit all of this stuff."

"Your too short to use half of it." Sasuke smirked, it was hard not to laugh when picturing Konohamaru trying to reach the equipment.

"I'll figure it out, I have to get stronger if I want to help. Besides, you can help me train " Konohamaru said, trying to lift a weight and move it 'Man it's heavy.' He really had a lot of work to do. After a few seconds he finally got it off the ground, only to trip on his scarf and fall face first to the ground "Owwww!"

Sasuke knelt down and lifted him on to his feet in an almost undignifying manner. Konohamaru waved his hand telling him he was alright even though he was wincing and holding his head. "Maybe you should take that off."

"What? No way!" Konohamaru said stubbornly "I already had switch my favorite shirt." He was now wearing a black one that looked like his old one only with out the Leaf symbol.

! - ! - !

Naruto walked out of the front room where Gaara was, looking around the forked hallway behind it, their was a series of doors along the walls on the left side and right. He could have guessed that the 8 of them on the left were rooms for each member, The ones on the right were mostly double doors and their purpose was unknown.

He had plenty of time to find out.

! - ! - !

"Gai?"

After an hour of searching he finally found his teacher, he didn't have any real reason for seeking him out, only to see if he could find out the combination to Lee's safe. If anyone had it, it was this man.

Gai turned around, his uncharacteristically empty expression changing into on of excitement

"Neji! Your alright!" Gai resisted the urge to hug him as tight as he could, Neji wouldn't like that all. "I was afraid you hadn't survived, I've been looking for you and Lee for days!"

"Gai-sensei." Neji shook his head, Gai was still his usual energetic self.

"Have you seen Lee?" Worry filled his voice now, with hope and concern "I can't seemed to find any sign of him."

"He's..." Neji paused, how do you explain to some one that the person they're looking for isn't even in the same time any more? "..Alright, he's not in Konoha."

"Where is it then?" Gai asked.

"I'm not sure exactly, you shouldn't worry about him though." Neji didn't feel like explaining the whole thing to him, Gai would have too many questions and it would take too long. He just hoped Gai wouldn't prompt him to explain farther.

Gai knew his students well enough to tell when they didn't want to talk so even though he really wanted to know more, Lee was safe and he could be satisfied with that answer.

"I need to know about something of Lee's, did he ever tell you a combination to a safe or

mention one?" He asked.

"No, not especially." Gai said, thinking about the question intently.

He went to the next logical thing "Well, what his birthday?"

"What? You don't know his birthday?" Gai looked on in mild surprise, one eyebrow raised.

"He's your teammate."

Neji snorted, they weren't exactly the best of friends "Not really."

"Hmm, it's strange how different you two were, he was always trying to learn more about you. I don't know if you could see it our not but he really wanted to be your friend. He even got you a gift for your birthday."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Neji looked up at him questioningly, he never got a gift for Lee.

"He never got a chance to give it to you though, I'm sure it's still some where around his house. He always kept his important things under the floor." Gai told him. That's just what he needed to hear, chances were that his things were safe from the storm if he did that. Which would explain why he put his safe underground, partly habitual and mostly intentional so that it'd be safe.

'He knew when my birthday was?' Neji thought, he never really cared much about his birthday, mainly because no one else paid attention to it. Neji barely remember when that day was, how did Lee find out? And even took the time to get him a gift of all things, that was Lee.

"I remember when he was half the size he was now..." Gai tended to reminisce when he was worried about some one or when he missed them, right how he was still worried. "He was so ambitious to become a ninja, he always had to work twice as hard because he couldn't use Jutsu. Great kid, never realized how much I'm proud of him until now. Heh, I guess you don't know what you've got until it's gone."

Neji looked up at him for a moment, his thoughts on what Gai was saying. "Thanks." He turned around, walking to Lee's house...now or later he wasn't sure.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Training.

They're wasn't much more to do right now and Gaara was completely fine with that. Iruka was...not exactly sure on what Iruka was doing at this particular time, most likely waiting for Kakashi to get back from scouting clients. Naruto would probably join him and train later, Konohamaru was probably going to spend all day setting up the basement which he had clamed as his own and Sasuke would most likely help him.

Neji was off doing noting in particular, to Gaara's knowledge he was scouting research materials. Last but not least that left Kiba, who was looking for dog food, or at lest that's what he thought he said.

That left Gaara alone in the peaceful serenity of the maze of fallen trees and those that were still standing. It was literally a maze to navigate and hard to travel through when moving at high speeds, that wouldn't be a problem for Gaara. He wasn't that fast and he never focused training on it anyway, just power and defense though it'd make a great course for training agility. He didn't focus on Jutsu either, he barely knew any because his main weapon was his sand. And a powerful weapon it was.

Right now his training focused on concentration, after time traveling he learned that it was possible to shape the grain in to specific shapes. If he could do that and change it from one object to another quickly then he'd be much more powerful in battle. He found the perfect spot to do that training, under a water fall a few miles away from D.S.I.

The few rivers in Konoha always had a weak current and were small, but after the storm they became rapids that eroded it's banks and expanded. So did this water fall, it was about 50 feet tall and sent a torrent of water on to him, who was sitting on a rock directly under it with out his shirt. The noise was immense, the water pounding on to him would have been very irritating if the sand hadn't been there to block it and the mist rising upward made it hard to see his hand in front of his face. It was just what he needed.

A large mass of sand floated in front of him that he could barely see, so it was a little hard to tell if he was doing it right. Another thing he needed, because he might not have time to check it in a fight. He was attempting to form it into a sphere...it wasn't easy but he could do it, eventually. But that was the problem, he needed to be able to do this quicker and with distractions.

Coming up on his eighth minute Gaara had the mass nearly perfect, just shave a little off and

A Kunai came flying at his arm from the east, he didn't even notice it let alone see it in the fog or hear it above the roaring waters. He couldn't get his defense up with all his concentration on forming shapes it was able to land right in his shoulder before the sand could raise around him.

He hissed in surprise and the sand his was forming fell limply into the water. 'What the hell!'

Gaara was immediately on alert again, sand rushed around his body and intercepted another one that came down from above clearly aimed for his head. Gaara pulled the bloody kunai from his shoulder and jumped upward, ascending the water fall toward the source of the closest attack.

Just as his body emerged from the Mist he saw a ninja standing at the head of the water fall. He didn't get a good look though, it was hard to get a good look at him though because he jumped in a blur of speed. Gaara tossed the Kunai at him but it was intercepted by another Kunai from the ninja as he fled.

Gaara landed at the top of the rushing waters, using his strength to stand just at the edge and prevent the water from sweeping him away. But it seemed just a soon as he touched down another Kunai was flying at his head, it was easy for the sand to block though. And it was easy for Gaara to look toward the source and saw another ninja standing on the banks below him.

He was dressed in Sand hunter attire and must have had the part to be able to get a projectile through Gaara's defenses "Damnit, I'm not going back." Gaara growled "Leave me Alone!" Sand rushed up from the ground around the man, devouring him completely but only to see his body dispel in a cloud of smoke.

His sand jumped at his back, knocking away a Kunai aimed for his head. Gaara crouched down as a fist just grazed the sand covering his head, turning around quickly and rising again with an upper cut that struck the true Ninja directly under the chin and sent him flying backwards.

Gaara drew his arm back as the man hit the river's base, sand began swirling out of his Gourd around his fist to form a spinning drill that he drove at the man's head. The Hunter was able to used the river to slide away by Gaara's side and send a sharp kick to his leg.

Gaara nearly feel but he flipped instead and recovered just as the hunter got to his feet, bringing them one foot away from each other. "Gaara, you have been ordered to return to the Village of the Sand." The man said, just as the other man appeared behind the boy.

"No." Gaara said plainly, casually folding his arms as the second man behind them began to speak.

"This is not an option, you have to return with us." The man said.

Gaara didn't reply, he just let the sand whip out of his gourd toward the men. Both of them flinched, the one in front of him jumped into the air but the man behind became entangled and bound by the waist and most of his torso.

He grunted, struggling against the sand that trapped him more and more each second. Finally he just pulled something out of his sleeve and tossed it too the ground. On contact it erupted into an explosion powerful enough to destroy the sand and let the man escape, leaving Gaara in a cloud of smoke and evaporated water...that he could use to his advantage. He couldn't see them so they couldn't him, and that could give him a chance to attack.

Usually he could use an under ground attack and take down his enemy from here but his sand wasn't as effective in water, so he he'd have to attack from above first.

A concentrated look came in to Gaara's eyes, causing the ground to rumble and shake, the grains and minerals underneath stirred. With out warning and large hole blew open in the center of the water fall sending huge pieces of debris the size of boulders down to a hunter on the ground bellow. The man was more then able to hear it coming, he ran forward with the knowledge that if he jumped in this blinding mist then he'd be hit.

Which is what Gaara wanted.

The ground under the hunter suddenly became less stable, he found himself sinking, quickly. With a little help from the water Gaara turned the ground into quick sand. Thin enough to pull him down but to thick to make it unable to swim through. "Hey! He's!" Before the man could utter another word his head was under and he was drowning in the thick liquid. It was loud enough to alert the second hunter who instinctively attacked.

A wall... a literal wall of Kunais so close that there was barely a centimeter between them came flying at Gaara, apparently by some type of replication jutsu. Their velocity was much too fast for Gaara to attempt to avoid, which was his second weakness, besides water weakening sand he was slow in comparison to most other Ninjas. He clinched tightly, doubling the layer of sand surround his body and bracing for impact, It was all he could do right now.

He found an outline of Kunais an inch from his skin, he was looking at one that came especially close between his eyes. Sand hunters weren't weak.

Gaara let the sand barrier fall and the Kunai's with it, just as soon as he did the hunter appeared in front of his face with an over sized shuriken . He thrust the large blades at Gaara's chest as more of a incaptaining maneuver, it tore through the sand, scraping his chest enough to draw blood. Gaara kicked him in the stomach forcing him back a few steps and just enough for Gaara to jump into the air and send a swift punch to the man's jaw and finally he kicked off the man's chest and flipped into the air. Landing with and almost grace into the rushing waters, it took all of his strength to keep from being washed away by the strong currents.

"!" Before the man realized it, His feet were being devoured by sand creeping up his body. It was moving quickly, about to take him over completely, he just had enough time to lift both hands above his head with the large shrunken and rotated it on nimble fingers that came with years of practice. "Kaze tunnel no jutsu!" Winds swirled around the spinning blades quickly forming a tornado.

Gaara was sure he's seen Iruka do this jutsu, most of his Jutsu seemed to be wind oriented. He knew what was coming next but once again his lack of speed worked against him. The tornado pulled up the water bellow, loosening the sand and freeing the man. The winds grew stronger and the tornado grew bigger until Gaara found himself being ripped at in a storm of wind and a torrent of water.

"Uhhhggggg!" Gaara planted his feet to the ground to keep from being blown away, He had to stop this attack. He expelled all of the sand he could outward making it as heavy and solid as he could manage. It collided with the tornado almost instantly creating an ear deafeningly loud grinding sound as one blocked the other while one tore the other apart.

After a few seconds both forces were dispelled and there was a heavy rain of sand and water clouding the both of them. The only difference was that the man was being covered in more and more blood from the sand while Gaara was practically immune. "I'm not going back. And I will kill anyone else who comes after me." he said firmly.

"Out of my hands, We were ordered to bring you back or kill you trying." The hunter didn't sound much as if he cared and he was still holding his ground though this rain was cutting him "And I have finish my missions, It's really important to now more then ever...Last chance to come back peacefully."

Gaara grunted in anger and annoyment, the softly raining sand became a powerful torrent that could rip the man apart. But he already had disappeared by then with an undetectable speed, it probably wouldn't be the last he saw of him or the Sand hunters. And now he had a whole new set of problem... but on the upside he did learn a new attack.

By sending lose sand into the air he could bring it down with enough force to rip an enemy apart.


	8. Chapter 8: Official part 2

Chapter 8: Official part 2

Neji dug through the ruins of Lee's home which he'd ignored before, the hole in the ground was still there from when he and Kiba dug up the safe. He never really thought to go through all of this rubble for a clue, mainly because he thought nothing was left worth salvaging. But if what Gai spoke of was underground then Lee's important things would be safe.

By now Neji knew the basic layout of Lee's house, after digging his way through two rooms and a hallway he'd found his way to the bed room. Currently he was over the spot where he was fairly sure the bed was...or weather had been and hoped he'd find the removable floor board. His Bakyugan was helping out a lot, though it was hard to make one thing out from the other with all of this debris bunched together.

"Hey Neji, looking for something?" Kiba asked from behind, peering over Neji's shoulder with Akamaru doing the same from his head.

"Yes." Neji said plainly, pulling out a thick piece of would that he figured came from the roof. "There's a"

"Neji!" Kiba called abruptly, his nose in the air sniffing some type of scent he'd just caught. "I smell blood...really wired blood...like it's mixed with a ammonia or something with a low PH balance." Neji had to give it to Kiba, he was smart in curtain aspects of things and scent was one of them. "It's coming toward us fast!"

Neji looked around cautiously, even with the Bakyugan he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. "What are you talking about?"

"I take that back, A lot of something is coming up from the ground!" Kiba shouted, jumping into the pile of debris and grabbing Neji abruptly. He pulled him back just as something big, black and greenish burst through the ground and the debris. "What the hell is that!"

"You mean those...they're insects...a swarm of them." Neji told him, looking at the mass of bugs each the size of locust. They're backs, antenna, the manacles over they're mouths and wings where green but they're underbellies and legs were black, all if it was off set by half green and black eyes. Strange creatures, a hundred or so of them.

"This doesn't make sense..." Neji back away a little as the swarm ravished around the home's wreckage, eating wood, metal, or anything else in they're path like termites or even comparable to acid. "They're like a vacuum... They don't have Chakra, they're body's suck it in...Be careful, I don't know what the expect from something like this"

Akamaru barked and started growling. Kiba glanced up at him and then back at the bugs "I see it too...Neji, look at them...it's creepy."

Neji knew he was talking about look at them with his eyes, so he stopped the Bakyugan effect and looked closely. "I don't..." At first he didn't see anything, but after he watched for a second he saw that the air...reality was distorting around their bodies like heat did air on a hot day. "What are these things? And why are they here?"

Akamaru barked again, growling louder. "I smell demon...What do we do?" Kiba glanced over at Neji while keeping an eye on odd bugs moving around in a strange formations as the crawled over the wood, glass and metal.

The swarm seemed to lose interest in devouring the ruins, but it was obvious that it wasn't because they were full. It wasn't clear why they were here but it was clear that Neji and Kiba we're they're next target just by the way they were gathering up. It wasn't clear why they were about to come after them, but they were, Neji and Kiba had to deal with it. "We're demon hunters, we do what we do best." Neji pulled a Kunai from the holder behind him, it wouldn't be much help against a swarm.

In fact physical attacks wouldn't work unless a person was in-humanly fast and had plenty of time to use on a fight. Unfortunately both of them specialized in physical attacks, it was nearly impossible to hit anything with these types of demons throwing punches, but a piercing blow was better then an impact blow. "You think we can do this?" Kiba asked nervously, picking Akamaru off of his head who immediately mimicked him, It was especially unnerving that swarm started buzzing loudly while they moved toward them.

"We can because we have to." Neji jumped back just before the swarm could surround him, that wouldn't be a good place to be against insects that could chew through metal.

Kiba on the other hand was surrounded quickly since he lacked Neji's speed and could only flail wildly to swat them off, blood start streaming down nearly every part of his body suddenly and Kiba grunted in pain. "Damnit! This is impossible."

Akamaru howled, running head first into the swarm and ramming Kiba out of the center, rolling to the ground safely on the other side. "We need Jutsus that it a wide area, I don't know any of those." Kiba shook the streaming blood off himself in a very dog like manner as he flipped on to his feet and started moving backwards as the horde spread outward toward both of them.

"Improvise!" Neji shouted, the veins surrounding his eyes pressed outward thicker then usual due to frustration. He didn't have any Jutsu of that... 'Heavenly spin!' That's it, he could use that!

Neji dived into the center of the spreading hoard, expelling Chakra from every tenketsu point on his body, but a controlled way making it revolve around him in a massive energy.

"!" The bugs were slowed some, one or two of them becoming entangled in the spin. But other then that they moved toward him since he was the one attacking. And the insects weren't slow, he quickly found that out, with in a few more second Neji had a countless number of them covering him completely before he even realized it.

A dangerously near explosion erupted from the ground in front of Neji, blowing or driving the demons off of his body and knocking Neji to the ground. "Wha?" he glanced over to the left of him and saw Kiba... no Akamaru had used that Nine-tail's explosion technique though he found it hard to control.

"I don't know about this one Neji... " Kiba ran over to Neji's side, The mimicking Akamaru following closely behind. "Maybe we should get out of here and let someone more equipped handle it." He had noticed that they're scent had changed, it wasn't really a complete change only the acidic ammonia smell was starting to over power the scent of they're blood. He wasn't sure what that meant but it made him even more nervous.

"We don't have much choice in the matter." Neji took a step backwards, unable to move fast enough to do anything but watch the insects surround them. They didn't all attack at once this time, but they swirled around them in a formation similar to a whirlpool or a tornado. Though seeming minimal and useless at the time, it's effect started to kick in.

Suddenly surrounded by strong winds, the three were slowly lifted off of the ground in a disoriented manner by the air currents that were still gaining speed. With in a few seconds the insects were nothing but a green and black blur, distorted by their speeds and the now visible tornado that had picked up a fair amount of debris .

They were thrown round dizzily, their bodies flying into the walls of insects, smashing anything strong enough to withstand the blow and breaking through anything that wasn't, and pummeling into each other. As if that wasn't bad enough, the wind was pulling them apart from all sides, it's suction was immense.

Which made Neji notice that the swarm had become much easier to hit. "Kiba, now's our chance!"

"Aahhhhhaaa..." Kiba clinched his eyes tightly and curled into a ball, only to be knocked out of his position after smashing into Neji "Gatsuuga!" He pulled his arms back to the side and pulled a large amount of air and Charka into his hands. He mixed them together until they swirled into a drill like form, then he threw them forward, unleashing a near invisible force that slammed into the insect wall. Now that some of them were in one very predictable spot that was hard to miss, he was sure to strike something. And he did, taking out most of left wall with one hit.

The winds weakened a little but the other insects moved in and filled the gap and brought the current back up to speed, it was still much too strong. So much so that it was painful, very painful.

Neji tried to centralize himself, using his Bakyugan to see everything around him so he'd be able to move with whatever came his way. He kicked off a wooden pillar flying past him and thrust his body into the center of the tornado, moving with the currents, twisting and turning his body to avoid anything that came his way. 'Their teamwork is amazing, they move as if they all have one mind and each insect is just a body part...'

Neji released his Chakra into his heavenly spin again, turning against the winds in an attempt to stop the currents. It wasn't working very well, the winds were pushing the rotation of his attack in the opposite direction. 'I need...more Chakra.' Less and less of his Chakra started being used to maintain his Bakyugan, all of it was moving into his Heavenly spin. That's when a strange but oddly familiar thing began to happen, his Bakyugan remained active even though all of his Chakra was going to other uses. 'It's happening again...what is this?' Neji shook his head, he had to focus. 'I need more Chakra.'

He put every thing he had into his heavenly spin, trying to force his own attack to rotate counter-clockwise. All of his efforts brought the winds and his Heavenly spin to a complete and conflicting stand still, but just because nothing was moving didn't mean both forces couldn't still move an object. Kiba and Akamaru were sent flying out of the wall of insects, landing a few feet away in the center of the rubble. "Oh man..."

Kiba rubbed his head, using something stable to pick himself up, "Come on Akamaru, now's our chance!" Kiba reached down and pulled Akamaru to his feet, who still managed to hold his Jutsu even through that. "Ready?" Kiba asked.

Akamaru growled and nodded, pulling both arms outward to his side in a Mirror of Kiba. "Gatsuuga!" Their Chakra merged together and expanded each other's attacks, The blast had at lest tripled in power from when Kiba did this on his own. The two lunched blast slammed and drilled into the walls of insects, it sent a good number the locust creatures thrown outward and an even bigger number being ripped apart.

The insects again had to spread themselves out to keep the tornado formations, Neji was easily able to change the winds directions thanks to Kiba's help. And the creatures may not have been effected by the Heavenly Spin itself, but they were highly effected by their owns winds now being manipulated against them. The rest of the insects were blown away, some of them being destroyed.

"Neji!" Kiba called out, at the sound of his voice Neji cut off the Heavenly Spin and nearly fell to the ground upon release. It was unhealthy for him to push himself that far and if he continued at that rate it could have killed him.

Neji walked slowly over to Kiba, still unable to stop using his Bakyugan like those times before. It didn't matter this time, he wanted to see everything around him, especially since the remaining insects were scattered far enough to surround them. Only 25 of them were left so the threat was minimized, the insects seemed to know that too since they were completely still, only staring at Kiba and Neji from where they where.

"What are they doing?" Kiba asked.

"I'm not sure." Neji shrugged "They're leaving...?" He was right, the rest of the demon were pulling back.

"That was close, you alright?" Kiba reached outward an caught Akamaru just as the dof changed back, then placed him back on his head.

"Fine...Looks like I have some research to do...I'm going to need more text." Neji walked past Kiba in to the remaining ruins, the debris that once cluttered the area had either been eaten away then or stripped off. It was easy to see what he was originally looking for now, a box hidden under the floor in the corner of the house under where the bed used to be. "Kiba, do me a favor and go find Sasuke. It will be easier on both of us one of us goes to start the paperwork." He knew for sure Sasuke wanted to do his job well, even if that meant hounding his teammates to get as much information as he could on a demon.

"I don't want to leave you here, what if those things come back?"

"I'll be back at HQ long before then."

"Alright, be careful." Kiba gave him a once over look before disappearing in a rush of wind and speed.

Neji casually went back to what he was doing, kicking away a few scraps over the spot he was looking for. Nothing was different about it, it looked the same as every other spot, a normal person probably would have never found it. Neji knew better though, he pulled a Kunai out of his holder and jammed it into one of the cracks, then preyed that part of the floor open. After that the boards came up easily, 4 were made to be removed revealing a small space about 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide. A few papers rested inside with a plain white box on top, it stood out not because it was on top but because there was a tag on it with his name.

'Must be the gift Gai was talking about...' He didn't particularly care, but curiosity got the better of him...and maybe he did care a little.

He opened the box about the size of his palm, becoming a little confused about it's contents. 'What is this?' A black stone resided inside with a strange marking on it, it was apparent that Lee took great care in packing it side so it couldn't be an ordinary rock. 'Hmm...Or held sentimental value. But why would he want to give it to me if it was important?...He did leave me the safe also... ' He'd look this stone when he got back.

Placing the item into his pocket, Neji picked up the papers that had been under the box. The one on top looked familiar, the title read 'Element Personality test'...Now it he remembered it. Tenten had tried to get him to take this test a while back, it looked like Lee actually followed through.

So just for curiosity he read it over...

1: What's your favorite color?

Green

That was obvious, even Neji knew that much.

2: How would others describe you:

...eccentric?

Yeah, that's not exactly how he'd describe Lee but close enough, maybe unrealistic, optimistic.

3: What's your favorite food:

Rice balls.

Interesting choice, he couldn't mean just that alone.

4: What's your favorite time of day:

Dawn

That explained why he always up so early.

5: When you fail and make a mistake, what do you do next:

Learn from them

6: What's your favorite element?

Water.

7: What was the hardest time in your life:

After my parents died.

8: What did you do the most after the hardest time in your life:

Read and train.

9: Currently have a love interest:

Yes

10: Describe your relationship:

Relaxed

11:What are the 2 most important things to you:

Friends and Love.

That sounded like a Lee answer

12: What drew you to your love interest:

Personality

Final question: What's your lucky number:

4

That's exactly what Neji was looking for, he was sure that 4 was in the combination, knowing Lee it was the first number. Now that he found this bit of information out he really didn't need to keep reading, but he was a little curious to find out the results.

You are an _Earth_ element: Strong willed, unyielding and maybe a little stubborn at times but you'll persistently fight for everything you believe in and follow the desires of your heart no matter the risk.

'Hmm...' Yeah, Lee was defiantly Earth.

"What happen to you?" Naruto immediately saw the cuts and blood in a few places over Gaara's body, their was no way he did this to himself training, it made him nervous.

"Sand Hunter-nins." He said calmly, as if it didn't even happen. "Tried to take me back."

"Guess they didn't take it too well when you said no." Naruto joked, pulling the gourd off of him by it's strap and setting it carefully down on the lobby sofa. "Hold on, I think Kiba bought a first aid kit, it's somewhere around here." Naruto abruptly turned around looked frantically through the room in an orange blur.

Gaara looked at him nervously "Naruto it's not that bad."

Naruto stopped in front of him with a white box in hand, "Lift up your arms." He said, sitting the box down and then lifting Gaara's shirt off. "Alright, sit down."

Gaara looked over Naruto's face, everything from his expression to his body signals breathed happiness. Gaara sighed in annoyment "Your enjoying this aren't you?"

Naruto jumped down on to the couch next to him, rubbing his head and grinning. "Yeah, a little...hold on." Naruto pulled the first aid kit over to him, scrimmaging around inside for something that might be useful for his purpose. "Ahhh, here's something."

He pulled out a large antiseptic pad, opening the packet quite crudely and then dabbing the white cloth across Gaara's blood stained chest. He was surprised to see Gaara didn't even bat an eye for something Naruto knew stung heavily, Gaara on the other hand wasn't advised to pain since he didn't feel much of it often.

"Why are you doing all of this?" Gaara asked, his voice was unquestioning and in it's usual tone which at first made Naruto unsure if he was asking or saying it.

"Why not?" Naruto tossed away the bloody cloth now that he was acutely able to see the wound itself. It wasn't too deep, most of it would be healed by the end of the day if taken care of properly. "I wanna do this." He had to admit he enjoyed doing this type of thing for someone who appreciated it.

"..." Gaara found himself content to sit there and receive this type of treatment, it was a nice change from anything else he was use to, and the fact that Naruto was doing it made it even better. "Naruto..."

"Huh?" Naruto looked up from Gaara's chest and paused his task of bandaging the wound. "What is it?"

"" Just as Gaara was about to say something the door opened and both them glanced over. It was Kakashi returning from seeing a clients and finding potential ones.

"Oh, I always seem to walk in at the wrong times don't I?" Kakashi folded a sheet of paper and placed it into his back pocket. "Just pretend I never showed up."

Naruto snorted "Pervert."

Kakashi was tempted to laugh "Have fun, and there's no sex in the lobby."

Gaara shook his head, their relationship really was humorous in an annoying sort of way.

Sasuke eased himself into the bath tub, he wasn't one for baths but he could make an exception this time. Since he had gotten a bathroom in his room with both doors closed he didn't have to worry about any interruptions, he still like his solitary nature and was reluctant to let go of that. And after being around everyone so much he wasn't adverse to being alone. Why not do it in some warm water that was rather relaxing.

"Sasuke." Of course he could make an expectation.

Konohamaru jumped into the steamy waters with a loud splash and landing directly into Sasuke's lap. Sasuke only shook the water off his face and rested his arms on the edge of the tub, "Huh?"

"What are you doing in here all by yourself?" Konohamaru laid back against Sasuke's chest, letting a few wet strands of hair fall in front of is face. "Aren't you bored?"

"Not really." Sasuke let his head fall back on to the tiled walls and his eyes close.

"Hn..." Konohamaru yawned lightly and moved back a little farther so that he was completely in Sasuke's lap. "I'm kinda tired."...After spending all day setting up and testing out all of the training equipment in the basement, Konohamaru was ready to go to bed early.

Sasuke opened his eyes again glancing down at the boy, it seemed now that he had actually stopped moving he realized how sleepy he was. He was already drifting off, and Sasuke couldn't help but watch, it was still cuter then ever. "Konohamaru..." It reminded him of when Konohamaru received his injury a few months ago, how Konohamaru let so weak afterwords, how he passed out when ever he put to much of a stain on himself.

Konohamaru grew so much in such a short time, the only thing he need to do now was get taller.

A familiar feeling started to descend over Sasuke, his mind more specifically. His eyes started shifted into the Uchiha blood red that happened everytime his Sharingan was activated. Once again that same link Konohamaru and Sasuke had made itself apparent and they felt each other. The Sharingan user had a much more versatile part of the link, this time he saw things he never saw before, he could actually see Konohamaru's thoughts...which were actually the boy's dreams since Konohamaru wasn't conscious.

'Konohamaru...?'

"Sasuke." Konohamaru shifted a little and smiled, he was dreaming about things they could do in the tub right now, it had already given him an erection.

Sasuke tried to ignore the fact that he was seeing what he was sing and focus on the fact that he could actually look through Konohamaru's mind in general. Everything was laid out to him like an open book, though the words were being created as Konohamaru went because he didn't know went he was going to think next, he wasn't in control of his mind right now. It was hard to analyze all of this when what Konohamaru was dreaming about was right in front of his eyes, literally.

'How can I do this?...Damnit why can't I ever think clearly around you?'

It was making him painfully hard, and with the blood flowing away from his head he couldn't help but want to make that dream Konohamaru was dreaming a reality. It was hard to dismiss that thought when Konohamaru was moaning in his sleep and keep rubbing against his member. There was no way he wouldn't do it.

Sasuke reached under the water's surface, rubbing both hands along Konohamaru's chest as they traveled down between his legs. That was a little too real to keep Konohamaru a sleep, bring him close to conciseness though he never quite reached it, Konohamaru drift back down into his dream in the end. And Sasuke could see how Konohamaru's mind changed through all of his stages of awareness, it caused an impish idea to form in his head.

Sasuke held on to the boy's thighs, creasing his skin softly though the warm waters while he lifted him slightly so that his cock was pressing against Konohamaru's entrance. "SaSasuke..." Konohamaru moaned, mirroring the same response in his mind 'Sasuke...' Konohamaru once again started awakening from the dream Sasuke was using as guide line for his own actions.

'Shhhhh...'Sasuke cooed, that seemed to ease Konohamaru's mind and pull him back into a full sleep. Sasuke still had the presence of mind to noting everything that happenedin the back of his head, that was going at the top of the list.

Konohamaru's arched forward and moaned as Sasuke eased him on to his cock and back down in to his lap. He was still easily able to keep him asleep even through that now he figure it out it was a simple matter of speaking things a certain way. Konohamaru followed the words as if they were his own thoughts.

Sasuke drove his cock upward slowly into Konohamaru's tight body, choosing the pace as he did so that he wouldn't hurt him. "Sa-Sasuke." Konohamaru gasped sharply, clinching his eyes tightly when Sasuke gave him a more forceful thrust this time.

Sasuke moved his hand along Konohamaru's leg blindly until he reached the boy's erection, wrapping his fingers around the soapy member and rubbing the head with his thumb. Konohamaru planted his hands along the bottom of the tub with a loud thump, arching up even farther though Sasuke was able to keep him down.

Sasuke leaned forward, pressing his chest against Konohamaru's back and pushing down on his legs. Sasuke's pace increased as Konohamaru loosened, running his hand along the boy's cock and pumping in time with his thrusts.

Konohamaru pushed himself upward with his hands and drove his erection upward in to Sasuke's 'Uh! Sasuke!' Konohamaru's mouth fell open though the only thing that came out was a deep sigh. He arched forward, releasing a stream of cum from his cock in to a thick white cloud in the water. 'Uahhhh!'

Konohamaru fell back limply on to Sasuke's chest with a smile forming on his face from the feel of Sasuke wrapping one of his arms around Konohamaru's waist, letting his other hand rest on Konohamaru's head, fingers slowly messaging through the wet strands now hanging down over his face. "Uhhh..." Konohamaru shifted slightly and opened his eyes.

Konohamaru looked up at Sasuke who had his had tilted back on to the wall and his eyes half lidded "I just had the best dream..." Konohamaru looked down at his cum floating in the water and felt Sasuke's softening cock still inside of him. "Sasuke." Konohamaru smirked and closed his eyes again. "I thought I felt you."

He didn't mean physically.


	9. Chapter 9: The real work starts now

Chapter 9: The real work starts now

2 months, D.S.I has been in Konoha for 2 month and by the 7th week their under the radar persona had faded. They brought millions in revenue into Konoha at time and single handedly saved it from extinction. Kiba had been concerned about credibility, that was no longer a problem. Now they were starting to get bigger and more paying clients, and to Iruka's contempt the demons surrounding Konoha were wiped out. The only problem now was that the Leaf's damages were measured in Billions, they need to take on jobs that paid more then a few million.

More money meant more difficulty, Other areas that had been hit by the storm were offering missions of a more prominent nature. The Demons around Konoha were just basic in comparison.

! - ! - !

"Are you serous, their offering how much?" Iruka asked in disbelief, leaning over his desk at the mention of a client's offer. "What's the catch?"

"100 million." Kakashi said causally. "No strings attached, we just have to do the demon kill thing." Kakashi had been gone for the better part of a week to see a client, a very big client.

Iruka let out a deep breath and sat back down "Great, where are we going?"

"Cloud village."

"Cloud! How are we suppose to get out there?"

"Don't worry, I had Naruto bait the demon, should be really close by now." Kakashi told him.

"Wait, you had Naruto bait a demon all the way from the Cloud village? That's way too dangerous!" Iruka obviously wasn't happy about this, which wasn't good for Kakashi.

"Kidding ..Ehm...Uh." Kakashi coughed and turned around, no, he wasn't kidding. "I'm sure he's fine, you know Naruto and Gaara follow each other like lost puppies."

Iruka sighed and got up, "Come on let's go before something happens to them." He said, shooting Kakashi a look while walking out of his office and into the hallway. The lay out was different now, instead of one floor now there were two. It was easy to see what direction Naruto was going with the spending, it was all about construction. And right across from Iruka's room was an armory that Naruto had built, it wasn't a bad idea, it was actually one of Naruto's better ones.

Iruka walked into the room that more closely resembled a hallway with display cases, a door at the back of the room led to the out side so the concept was simple, get what you need quickly. Iruka and Kakashi walked through, taking what they needed on there way, and it wasn't hard to choice because they both predominantly picked their own usual set of weapons. Iruka took a large 5-point shrunken shaped weapon only the blades were thin and sleeker like those generally found on swords. They were curved to one side so it could work as a boomerang. Other then that, 10 Kunais and 10 explosive tags which he tucked away in the holder strapped to his legs.

Kakashi wasn't much of a weapons user, he took only a few Kunais and Shrunkens.

With that taken care of the two emerged from the back door into the field out side the building, most of the dead trees had decomposed or had been destroyed in fights leaving only a grassy, uneven land. "He should be about 30 miles ahead by now so it shouldn't take that long." Kakashi said.

"I just hope Naruto doesn't do anything stupid, what kind of demon is it anyway?" Iruka asked.

"Spider, it's working with a fly. Ironic huh?"

"Wait, there's two of them, and there working together?" Iruka was starting to get even more worried about Naruto, despite the fact that a spider and a fly couldn't be easy to fight at the same time. "Maybe we should take Sasuke, I don't want to try to describe this one when we get back."

! - ! - !

"Neji, you in here?" Kiba called out, pushing open the double doors into the largest room in the building. "I just saw Kakashi come out." He heard his voice echo as he stepped inside, he couldn't help but look around an awe. "Whoa..." He was surrounded on all sides by book shelves, Neji had built a whole library.

Shelves were pressed against every wall, in front of him were 5 rows of the smaller shelves that stretched in sections of 6 to the end of the room, and this was a big room. And because of that only half of the shelves were filled, the ones toward the back were still empty so that's where a desk resided and a door that lead to Neji's bed room. This place was huge, even by normal standards, that's because the library in itself was the entire second floor.

Neji emerged from one of the rows with a ladder on his shoulder that he used to reach the top of his higher shelves, the ones against the walls stretched up to the ceiling, larger then the ones in the center of the room so he was probably trying to access one of those. "He wanted some information on a Spider and a fly demon."

"I can't believe you actually have the whole second floor to yourself, I want my own floor." Kiba wined.

"And what would you do with it?" Neji couldn't help but let out a small smirk at the thought of Kiba sitting alone in an empty room as large as this trying to figure out what to use it for.

After a moment of contemplating he shrugged "I don't know, I'd figure something out. Till then I'm sharing this one with you."

"Sure you would." Neji gave him a mocking pat the back and continued working, he was currently looking for a book. "But I don't mind sharing."

"What are you doing?" Kiba followed behind him curiously, letting Akamaru jump off his head and look around the room for himself.

"Remember what I found in Lee's house? Well I've been trying to research it but details are sketchy." Neji sat the later against one of the shelves and climbed upward "As far as I can tell it's an old concentration stone. There's a lot of Charka stored inside so who ever used it must have had immense Charka. And from what I can see they were fighting in an imperative battle to use that much and still need to concentrate it."

"I guess Lee's not an option then huh?" Kiba watched Neji pull out one of the thicker volumes of a series of blue books. "Could have been his parents."

"That would explain why he kept it, I doubt he knew what it was." Neji climbed down and started walking towards the desk in the back of the room, 'But why would he leave it to me...?'

"What do you think they were fighting?" Kiba asked, "Must of have been something seriously mean."

"Not sure. There's no way I can gather that from what I have." Neji started shifting through the book, trying to reference the concentration stone with any one who may have had one in the past or at least it's origins.

"What about those bugs, anything on them?"

"I'll have something soon enough, as soon as I find out what they are."

"So, you get any closer to cracking that safe?" Kiba asked, Lee's safe was now in Neji's room across from his bed.

Neji shook his head "No." 'I should probably get back to that.'

! - ! - !

"Sasuke..." Konohamaru didn't bother to look up at him, he was too busy with the punching bag. Even though D.S.I had been developing and expanding, Konohamaru still opted to keep the basement the way it was with out power. Those flames never went out once, he took care of them diligently and they gave more then enough light. "Anything weird ever happen to you around here?"

"What do you mean weird." Sasuke was holding the bag from the other side, he could feel how much Konohamaru had grown in strength over the last 2 months of training.

"Nothing really, just...I always get a weird feeling around here." Konohamaru shrugged it off, that feeling had been getting worse and worse. "And it must be something I've been eating because I think I've been seeing things."

"What have you been seeing?" Sasuke asked, Konohamaru had just made him interested.

"It's flashes of stuff, I can't make it out because it comes and goes really fast and it's kinda blurry. I was wondering if it was only me."

"I haven't seen anything unusual." Sasuke glanced over at Konohamaru somewhat worried, Konohamaru must have been seeing things because if anyone would have spotted something it would have been Sasuke. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know, it's starting to creep me out now. Think something's wrong with me?"

"Maybe...Can you describe it in detail?"

"Well...it only happens when I'm around here...and it's just flashes like I said." Konohamaru became a little disheartened, he felt like he was going insane though if this kept up he'd die from fear before that happened.

"Tell me the next time it happens."

"Ok."

! - ! - !

"Whhhhaaaaa!" Naruto found himself being picked off the ground by a black fly, it caught him by the collar with it's leg and lifted him in the air, flying strait ahead toward an extremely large tree.

The fight was taking place in a large grassy field with a single tree in the center, and right now he was being carried head first at high speeds towards it. "Let go of me you damn fly!" He shouted, he could barely hear himself of over the buzz of the insect's wings.

Naruto bent backwards and flipped completely so that his back was facing the ground and kicked the legs that held him. The fly couldn't maintain grip and released him, sending his body flying head first at the tree's trunk helplessly. Naruto flipped in the air and landed side ways on the enormous plant, kicking off the tree and flying towards the fly again. He drew a Kunai and pulled his arm back to strike, only to be swatted down by it's wings. "Damnit I can't catch this thing! What about you Gaara?"

Naruto rolled to the side and looked towards Gaara who was about 100 yards off with a very different enemy. He couldn't locate it at the moment though not because it was small, the Spider was actually quite large, it was just under ground. Gaara of course knew how to solve that problem, the only problem was it was too fast catch even for Gaara while it was drilling. "It's tricky, I just have too" Gaara jumped into the air just a half second before the ground erupted in a pillar of thick dirt. The spider jumped out of the cloud at Gaara, but Gaara was too high for it to touch.

This was an usual spider not because it was half the size of D.S.I headquarters but because parts of it such as it's the leg area above the claws it walked on, it's back, the top of it's head, it's under belly all were made of Lava. It was so good at drilling because it melted the ground, and a few other features it had helped. The large scorpion tail behind it was some type of demonic mutation and it just made things worse for Gaara. Gaara shifted slightly in the air, causing the ground to break and fly upward in a flurry of brown and green.

"Desert Rain."

The uprising earth pummeled the spider, engulfing it in the attack's wake and knocking it in to the air. The molten spider was too heavy to be taken up more then a few feet, Gaara wasn't strong enough for that, so it fell back to the deep crater that remained, landing painfully on it's back. Carrying himself just above the hundreds and hundreds of pounds of dirt and minerals with his sand, Gaara sent all of it down in a torrential rain, he had become more skilled in the attack's use, instead of just falling sand that drowned the opponent. He could now form it in to thick spikes. It clearly had some damage, not as much as he had liked, that outer shell around it's body was stronger then he expected.

"Not bad, where'd you learn that?"

The sand surrounding Gaara jumped toward the unexpected source, it might just have hit Kakashi if he if he hadn't recognized him at the last second. Gaara let the sand under him dissipate and himself fall, landing softly on the ground facing the man "Why did you use us as bate?" He sounded mad, apparently Kakashi didn't let him in on the plan.

"No, Naruto was the bate." Kakashi clarified, that only made things worse. Gaara had rather used himself then Naruto.

Gaara glared at him menacingly then returned back to the task at hand. "You use water elementals right, your more effective then me."

The spider burst through the earth that had buried it in a burst of flames that surrounded it's body. It opened it's mouth, blowing out a ball of flames the size of Kakashi's torso past the large venomous fangs that hung outside of it's mouth. Kakashi and Gaara dived to the side as the flames narrowly missed them. "Ok, you distract it and I'll"

"NO." Gaara yelled in annoyance.

"Fine, just try and keep it above ground." Kakashi drew a kunai and took a step forward toward the spider that was currently trying to dig.

The sand in Gaara's gourd swirled around it's legs and tried to in inhibit it's movement, he did manage to slow it down critically. So the Spider took another approach, it drove it's tail in to the ground, seemingly with no real purpose until Kakashi jumped into the air. "Might want to look down."

Gaara's eyes shifted downward toward a reddish orange light glowing under his feet. He dived backwards but he was just a little too late, lava came shooting out of the glowing spot, devouring Gaara in a rush of heat liquid heat. "!" Even with the sand surrounding every inch of his body it was hard not to cry out, it was so intense that the lack of air in these conditions almost made him pass out. His body was launched in to the air by the geyser of molten rock, the burning Gaara slammed into the large tree a 100 yards away and sparked flames on the branches.

Naruto glanced over towards Gaara to see if he was alright then turned his eyes back on the fly, it was imposable to hit! "Iruka, got any plans?"

"Not really, well... it seems to like you." Iruka said, trying to follow it's movements but it was erratic and fast, just like ...well, trying to swat a fly. The fly rushed at Naruto from behind, slamming into his back and sending him sliding forward face first on the ground.

"Ooo...Damn, it hit's hard." Naruto could feel a bruise forming already, it hurt when he bended a little just to get up. "We got to slow that thing down, we have to catch it."

"Just stand back." Iruka pulled the 5 point blade and lifted it into the air, spinning around between both hands for more stability. It was a trick he'd learned to intensify his jutsu "Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" A burst of wind cascaded outward from the blades, instead of going upward in a blast it radiated outward and swirled in visible white streaks around the blade like a whirlpool.

"Whoa Iruka, where did you learn that?" Naruto asked, crouching down to avoid the vortex. "It's really cool."

"2 months of practice." Iruka's voice had a strain to it as he tried to spin the 5 point faster. "Now get ready." He called out, watching the fly slow down as it was pulled into the winds.

Naruto watched carefully with 2 Kunai's in hand, ready to attack

Closer... closer, the closer the fly came to being shredded the more buzzing of the fly's wings grew louder with it's increased effort. It blew it's own gust of wind at Iruka who was pulling in air. That added wind was too much for him to handle, the Retsu Ha geki grew out of balance and he was blown off his feet, cutting off the Jutsu with him.

"Damnit!" Naruto threw both Kunais at the insect but it dogged easily.

The fly seemed as if it was going to attack again, only instead it started twitching and shaking. It was spitting up 3 or so white balls, all of them larger then the insect's mouth. As soon as they hit the ground they expanded and uncurled into Fly larva. "What! No way!"

! - ! - !

Kakashi did a few quick hand seals and then jumped backwards out of the way of another large fireball. Water expelled from the ground per Jutsu and washed over the molten spider, a loud hissing sound radiated from it's body. "Gaara."

"What?" Gaara finally caught up, his body filled with scorch marks.

"We're going to need mud."

The spider jumped up into the air, trying to pounce on Gaara and Kakashi, the two rolled to the side just in time, nearly falling from the resulting earthquake. It was smart enough to go for the slowest person, the burning spider turned towards Gaara, spitting another ball of fire at him. Gaara tried to jump back but was much to slow. Sand rushed over the front of his body to absorb the impact but it did little against the flames. Gaara was knocked to the ground, once again on fire. "Desert Coffin! Kakashi, go." Gaara yelled firmly.

Kakashi began doing hand seals "Someone's mad." Kakashi snorted, he moved backwards as sand started to rise from the ground around the spider. Water began to seeped up between the grains and minerals directly after, changing the it into a thick quicksand like mixture. The spider struggled, the only thing louder then it's trashing in the devouring liquid was the sizzle of it's lava merged body. After a few seconds it realized that sudden movements only made it sink faster, it couldn't get out. "Not bad."

The spider opened it's mouth, instead of it's usual flames a white egg was spit out ward, it had time to eject one more before it's head sunk below the quicksand and it drowned.

"Eggs?" Gaara looked on in confusion, kicking it lightly. "Eh!" He pulled his foot back quickly, just in time to watch the tip of his shoes melt, "Scolding acid, extremely hard shell."

Both of them were watching the first egg that they didn't notice one of the Flies larva crawling up to the second, it wrapped it's mouth around it despite the fact that the egg was 2 the size of it's body and dripping in burning acid. It was like a snake, stretching to devour something larger then it self, the white body grew larger with ever inch it took in. Some how immune to the acid it broke through the shell and devour the baby spider inside...on the other hand it may have more so merged and mutated the then devoured, it started to grow and change shape.

When the process was complete the small white larvae was red and about 2 feet in height and length, it was completely flat when it's mouth was closed. It had the same number of eyes as a spider as well as it's fangs that extended out side of it's mouth, it also had the wings of a fly. It didn't see Kakashi and Gaara, it only moved forward toward what it did see, Iruka.

The creature was fast, it moved as quickly as snake's strike towards the man, springing upwards and sinking it's fangs into his chest before he even realized it. "What the!" The creature started sucking his blood like a leach, instantly making him dizzy and light headed along with his amazingly fast fleeting strength. Iruka almost fell to the ground, scrambling to pull it off with a loud grunt from the pain of separation. He tossed it to the ground, attempting to step on it before it scurried away with a speed he could hardly follow. "What was that thing?"

It wouldn't be the last time he saw it, and he was going to regret letting it catch him off guard.

"Iruka! Behind you!"

Iruka quickly turned around with the 5-point outward, he sliced right through the Fly.

Naruto ran over to him. "Iruka are you ok, that thing was huge!" Naruto wasn't exaggerating.

"I'm ok, I just hope it wasn't poisonous." Iruka brushed his fingers over the two holes in his chest, the creature's fangs had slid right in-between his ribs but didn't go far enough to do serous damage.

"I never saw you use that before." Naruto looked over the remains of the fly demon, it had been cleanly halved.

"Yeah, looks like I need more practice." Iruka place the weapon back on to his back and turned towards Kakashi and Gaara's direction, he almost jumped when he found that they were standing right behind him.

"What happened to you?" Kakashi softly touched the two wounds with his hand, carefully as not to make them worse.

"Not sure what it was but it bit me...Don't worry it's nothing." Iruka pushed away Kakashi's hand and discarded the injury as occupational hazard , it didn't hurt too much, he'd dealt with worse. "I just can't help thinking this job was too easy for how much we were paid."

"Don't get too relaxed, it's not over." Gaara said "There's more."

"Huh? Where?" Naruto started looking around nervously, "I don't see anyWhooaaaa!" Naruto stared strait upward, his eyes wide at the approaching hoard of flies, the faint buzzing slowly becoming louder.

"How are we going to fight against all of those!" Iruka shouted, taking a step back at the sight. "It's imposable!"

"The same why we fought the ones before them." Kakashi said, looking towards the south with lazy eyes. That was the direction of the Cloud village and the rest of the spiders, when there was one spider there was always at lest10 more in the area.

"What! We can't take on all that many!" Naruto said worriedly, this just seemed like too much for even them to take on.

Gaara un-folded his arms and looked towards the approaching molten spiders, they were coming from all sides now "It's a trap, doesn't look like we have a choice in the matter." He said in his usual manner, he didn't seem worried. "We can handle this." Gaara crouched slightly and jumped in to the air, springing a little higher then usual.

"I hope so..." Iruka sighed, pulling the 3 point off of his back.

"I'll try and stay out of the air." Kakashi said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"What is he doing?" Naruto looked at the spot Kakashi had been standing in curiously.

"I'm going to need your help Naruto." Iruka said, he had to shout over the sound of the flies wings, they were spreading out from one large swarm into a scattered mass that surrounded the both of them.

"I'll do my best." Naruto pulled out another set of Kunais from his holder, only to have them knocked out of his hand by a fly slamming in to his stomach. Another smashed into to his back and another came from below and knocked him upward by a strike to his chin. More and more came from every direction, knocking him around with strength that only came from flying at high speeds. "Uhff!"

"Watch yourself Naruto, you have to use your agility, you have a lot more of it then I do." Iruka told him, he was doing well enough to avoid most of them.

Naruto landed on his feet, quickly crossing his arms over his chest to block a fly soaring head first into his stomach, he slid backwards a few feet, jumping to the side and out of another one of the insect's way but he ended up right in the path of a third that hit him directly in the face, drawing blood in several places and throwing him to the ground. "I can't! They're too fast, what ever your going to do, do it now!" Naruto shouted.

"I'm going to need you to cover me." Iruka moved and blocked what he could, a few were still getting past his evasions. One rammed head first in to the back of his leg while another struck him on the shoulder and swept him painfully of his feet.

"I'll try.." He was quickly hooked by the collar and taken up in the air by another one of the black insects, it was easier just to continue with his current plains then to stop and try to escape Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto's body went up in a white smoke, reappearing with 10 more copies each with a pair of Kunai's in hand. He and clones were immediately dropped, quickly surrounded Iruka upon landing and holding off as many as they could while Iruka held the 5-point above his head.

He attempted to concentrate and spin the weapon between both sets of his fingers, but more flies attacked him from behind while he wasn't paying attention. Three more came from the front, each attacking in different places with enough force to send him flying backwards. "Naruto."

"There's just too many of them!" He and his clones shouted in unison, "I can't...Hold them off." Just as quickly as they were created his clones were destroyed in a white cloud. Naruto was being hit more frequently then ever now that he was in the center of the swarm and of the fly's attention. He could barely keep track of the attacks coming head on let alone those coming from other sides and protecting Iruka.

Their was only black streaks, to fast to see clearly even with his training. He was being hit constantly now, no pause in-between each strike for him to recover or distinguish one between the next. 'They're...too strong, I can't even get away.' He was trying to fight back but it was just too much for him to handle...

"Naruto!" Iruka abandoned his plain and started to fight his way over to Naruto, but it seemed like the numbers were increasing, barely anything could be seen in-between the black streaks of agile fly demons 'More of them are coming...something's drawing them to Naruto...' Iruka grunted loudly "Naruto!"

"Aaarrgg!"

A red light...an energy radiated from Naruto's body, rising from his feet, sweeping over his body ...It was Charka, large amounts of it. The cuts on his body...miraculously began to close, the bleeding bruises also began to heal, the marks on his face started becoming more bold and extended. His hair grew into a wild mass that hung just above his eyes now that he didn't have his forehead protector to hold it back, his eyes shifted into animalistic narrow slits as his canines grew into fangs . "Back** off**!" Naruto yelled as loud as he could, his body suddenly multiplying at an increasing rate, with in seconds there had to be at lest 30 copies.

"Naruto?" Iruka looked around questioningly, finding himself no longer under attack. It took every one of Naruto's copies to hold them off and even then he was having trouble. 'Right, I've got do it now!'

Iruka lifted the 5-point above his head again, spinning it in a rapid rotation faster then he'd ever practice. It was a struggle to keep it in his grip "Full power Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" This time he was turning his blade in the opposite direction, so it blew out wind like a fan in a strait forward blast of air. The whirlpool of air expanded much farther then it's previous boundaries now that he was pouring more chakra in to it, most of the demons were blown away but a substantial amount fought back with wind of their own from their wings.

"Iruka!" The surrounding Naruto clones leaped upward into the white-winded whirl pool above their heads, using the winds to throw themselves upward at the flies with kunais ready. The current was strong enough to make them merely an orange bur ones in plain sight, the brightly colored streaks sliced through the demonic left and right with the knifes in hand and let the remains be scattered by Iruka's Jutsu...it was quite a sight to watch.

'Go Iruka.' Kakashi rooted mentally, still keeping his eyes on the surrounding spiders that he was currently drawing to himself and Gaara. He wished he had a longer weapon, then he could more effectively do close combat if it was needed. Now it wasn't worth the risk, he'd be melted long before he did any substantial damage.

Gaara was doing better fighting wise, his main weapon was the sand, which he shaped over his arms in large hammering pillars that extended far past his hands. It was mainly used only when one of the creatures got too close, other then that all they could do was evade and doge, that didn't mean it was easy. Gaara jumped into the air, kicking off the face of one of one of the spiders that sprang after him, only to be pressed down by another that had leapt a little higher.

He was slammed to the ground and pined between it's lava over-flowing underbelly and the ground. The inane sand that automatically sprang to his defense provided some protection but the lava was melting right through.

Kakashi charged forward, dodging a few other spiders before jumping into the air and sending a strong kick to the face of the demon pinning Gaara down. He was just strong enough to send it sliding back a little, good enough for free Gaara. "Are you all right kid?"

"..." Gaara glanced behind him, seeing that half of his shirt had been melted away and the burning sensation that still lingered on his back, he could safely say no. He couldn't hold back a growl of frustration that radiated from his throat...Sand swirled around him in reaction, hardening into an defensive orb around his body.

'He's transforming...' Kakashi flipped backwards, slipping between two large blast of fire and springing on to his feet. 'I'm going to have to do this now...' Kakashi kicked off the non molten joints of the next spider's leg, leaping upward and tossing a shrunken at it's head. The spider hissed and cocked it's head to the side, letting the projectile strike it's fang and shatter before it turned completely around and plunged the long tail into the ground. Pillars of lava trailed after him but Kakashi fell faster then demonic spider could pump the burning liquid.

He may have been aware of what was about to happen but he wasn't fast enough to escape a spider spring upward from behind him and wrapped it's legs around his body, squeezing him tightly against the intense heat from the red liquid. His eyes grew wide and he almost cried out, the constriction became tighter and tighter pressing him deeper and deeper...

Something pulled the spider off from behind...Gaara, in a half transformed state, dug both of the rock hard claws into it's back and tossed it to the ground. He was in the same form of half change he had been in when fighting Naruto Everything was transformed except for his shins and his feet which he hadn't had time to wait for, he even had a tail now.

Kakashi landed and sprang back up into the air again, "Rain!"

His Chakra poured outward in large volumes, creating dark clouds in the blue sky. Thunder rolled over the calm lands, letting a heavy rain fall break out of the clouds on to the mass of molten lava demons. Mist started to rise from the ground and a loud hissing sound resulted, it was definitely working. The spiders most defiantly became weakened by it.

Gaara's body absorbed the damage of numerous balls of fire almost larger then him, Black and red eyes shifted quickly between enemies and the brown claws followed after. Punching, tearing, ripping and smashing demons in an almost animalistic rage while Kakashi continued to send a torrent of rain over the spiders. "Double Chidori!" A static energy formed in both palms, radiating and discharging like blue lighting. He fell head first into the crowd of spiders drawn after Gaara, slamming in to the spider in the center and sending a rush of power outward.

The other spiders were struck with a high voltage bolts that radiated from Kakashi like lighting towards a rod in a storm, everything else was a blinding flash...

Kakashi emerged from the light on his feet, surrounded by the bodies of unconscious demons. Gaara...the sand creature he'd almost fully changed in to had almost completely been blown apart by Kakashi's attack. Half of his back and all of his tail was now running off in thick piles of the golden minerals he was formed off, Thankfully he'd manage to curl into a ball before it happened, and he wasn't too happy about it happening in the first place.

"Uh..." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head nervously "Oops."

Gaara allowed his transformation to fall away, returning to normal and his injured form. He was limping slightly and had a few burn marks, moderate injuries. Gaara shot him a dangerous glare towards Kakashi, snorting as he turned to walk away.

"Guess your not going to help me finish them off huh?"


	10. Chapter 10: The seen threat and the unse...

Chapter 10: The seen threat and the unseen demons.

"Uh...ahh"

Naruto found himself being awaken by the sounds of groaning and the subtly increasingly forceful shifts in the bed. His white sleeping clothing were starting to become uncomfortably itchy, 'What...is going on?' Naruto lifted his arm to rub his eyes...or at least that's what he thought he was doing. When he didn't feel the pressure being applied to his eyes he realized that his hands hadn't moved because they couldn't move, they were being pressed down, and no matter how tired he was from his previous mission he had the presence of mind to wake up. His training dictated that much, it also dictated that he should have realized this sooner and he wouldn't be in this situation at all.

Naruto's eyes shot open, looking upward through the sliver light of the moon shining through the his bedroom window. His own met black circles around closed eyes, a peaceful face of a sleeping Gaara, who was holding him down by the wrist and surrounding his body with sand. "Gaara! Wake up!" Naruto shouted, struggling against Gaara's much stronger hold, it was becoming even harder to move against the sand creeping over him.

"Damnit..." Naruto growled, he was trying his best to do this physically, but it was getting harder to fight against Gaara's hold and his sand with out using Chakra. "Gaara!" Naruto desperately thrust his head forward, slamming it into Gaara's and knocking him on to the floor. The sand immediately loosened and streamed weakly off of Naruto's body and bed.

The other boy's eyes shot open from the fall and sharp pain "Uhhh..." Gaara pushed himself off of his back and on to his knees, holding one hand on to his throbbing forehead. "What happened?"

Naruto pulled his legs over the side of the bed, leaning forward lightly and resting his head in his hands. His expression was as steady as he could make it, but he was obviously saddened and distressed. "..."

"It happened again didn't it." Gaara sighed. "I'm sorry, I"

Naruto shook his head. "Gaara. It's not your fault."

"It was real!" Gaara pounded his fist into the ground, "Damnit! It couldn't have been a dream! It couldn't have! You were...there was a...Damnit!"

Naruto reached outward and put his hand on Gaara's shoulder. "It may have seemed real but-"

Gaara pushed Naruto's hand away, he didn't want Naruto to touch him, he didn't know what he could have happen anymore. Honestly he was still confused, was this real and that was a dream, or is this a dream and was that real. "No, I'm serous!"

"Are you ever not serous?"

"I may not have had many dreams, but that couldn't have been a dream. I felt everything, I tasted it, I smelt it." Gaara shifted his bare shoulder towards Naruto, revealing a large and open cut that lay there.

"Whoa!" Naruto flinched "Th-that wasn't there before!" Naruto jumped off the bed and walked behind Gaara, looking over the wound closely. He remembered all of the other times this happened there was a story behind the dream, "What happened?"

Gaara sighed again, his voice becoming more of it's natural monotone. "We were in this room...I was sleeping...and then there was this...creature, it was on top of you...it was trying to kill you. So I tried to stop it...I pinned it down and..."

"That's new..." Naruto said, pulling a first aid kit from under his bed. "It wasn't you this time." All of the other dreams before Gaara had accidentally killed Naruto himself and didn't even realize it until it was too late. Gaara always did exactly the same thing in the real world as he did in the dream, so however Gaara tried to kill him in the dream he was doing the same thing to him in real life. Naruto would have called it sleep walking but...this was obviously not the case.

"There's a demon inside of me..."

"Me too, what's new?" Naruto joked in his usual manner.

"No...there's something different. I can't explain it but there's always this change right before it happens...right before it happened." Gaara told him, "I should just stay away from you."

"What? No." Naruto objected quickly. "I don't want you too." Naruto wrapped his arms around Gaara from behind, hugging him tightly. Holding him back, holding him there.

Gaara shifted and broke out of Naruto's grasp, "No I can't." He said, standing to his feet. "What If I try to kill you again?"

Naruto still found it amazing that Gaara could still keep his same tone of voice while saying anything.

"It's ok, I can handle it." Naruto said, bringing himself to stand also. "You know I can."

Moonlight from the lone window shined directly on to the bed, everything else was covered with a thick shadow. Gaara stood within half of that shadow, Naruto completely shrouded on the opposite side of the window, still holding the first aid kit in his hands. Gaara shook his head "No...I don't want to hurt you."

"Gaara. You know I can handle it!" Naruto tried to wrap his arms around Gaara again, only to have Gaara's arms hold him at bay. "Please...just let me"

"I'm sorry." Gaara shook his head again, "I might hurt you."

"...I don't care."

The door opened, both of them looked towards it and saw Iruka standing there in just a pair of pants that one could easily conclude that they were hastily thrown on, obviously in the mist of worry. "I heard some...interesting noises, are you two alright."

"Fine." Gaara said, walking away from Naruto and past Iruka into the hallway.

"Gaara..." Naruto called out softly, he knew Gaara wasn't the type to change his mind about anything. Naruto shook his head and sat down on the bed, there was no use going after him, it would only make things worse, he only sat down on the edge of his bed with a heavy sigh.

Iruka sat down next to him next to him, wrapping his arm around Naruto's shoulder. "It happened again?"

"...Yeah." Naruto sighed. "I don't know what's going on with him."

"So he doesn't want to stay around because he's afraid he'll hurt you?"

"Uh-huh, I mean I can take care of myself, he doesn't have to worry about me."

"Naruto, he's more worried about what he might do. And he doesn't want to stay around you if he can't control himself." Iruka looked down at him, it was killing him to see both of them so unhappy, there was that parental instinct again. It was making him even more worried about Naruto. "He's right, you may just have to respect that for now."

"What am I suppose to do! I can't just let this happen!" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto calm down." Iruka pulled Naruto a little closer, trying to comfort him or at least ease him. "How do you think he feels? He obviously loves you, just look at him. He's protective to fault, and almost completely selfish with you. He doesn't want to do this but...what other choice dose he have? He was never stable to began with, and when he finally able to be truly happy, When he finally is able have you, and sleep since the first time he can remember. This happens, how do you think this makes him feel. "

"II" Naruto shook his head and slumped into Iruka's hold, letting his head fall on to the man's chest. "I guess your right..." He still didn't like it. "...But how do you know all of this?"

"Two weeks ago, Gaara came and talked to me. Do you have any idea what's causing this?" Iruka asked.

Naruto paused for a moment, thinking about it before he nodded again "He said...something about a demon, he said there was one inside of him, he felt it. And not the one that's already there."

"Well try to get some sleep tonight, we're just going to have to figure it out in the morning." Iruka ruffled his hair lightly before he stood up and walked to the door "Are you going to be alright Naruto?"

"Yeah, I guess so." He sighed. "But I'm not going to give up on Gaara, I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

! - ! - !

Gaara sat down on the sofa in the lobby, immediately feeling a small chill through out the small room. Shadows crept from every corner, even with a window on both walls, the silence was haunting to him now, even though he was long since use to it. He'd grown accustom to Naruto, who was always some source of noise, weather it be mumbling in his sleep, snoring lightly, or shifting around, even his breathing. Being alone in this dark, quite room with out Naruto's constant noise and light, it was depressing.

'...hn' He missed Naruto already... 'What's happening to me...It was real, I know it was. There's no way dreams can be that real...' Gaara sat back on the sofa, resting his arms on top of the backrest and letting his head fall back. He stared aimlessly at the ceiling as he thought, "I felt it this time...that change...when it started becoming too real...something caused that." He said to himself, nothing could be said otherwise, he knew what he felt. Gaara sighed, maybe in annoyment, or maybe he was just feeling sad for the first time in his life. "I don't even know what's real anymore...Am I dreaming now? Or am I awake?"

It didn't matter, with out Naruto it was impossible for him to go to sleep. He'd just be left with his thoughts as he'd been for countless nights. This didn't appeal to him anymore, he was afraid of himself now. Not for his safely but for Naruto, every time this happened he only went for Naruto...no one else.

"Huh?" Gaara glanced over toward the front door just as it opened, a man coming through hastily and shutting it behind him.

"I wasn't sure someone was still up. I need S.D.I's help bad." the man said. He was young, by the looks of it, somewhere around 19.

"It's D.S.I." Gaara corrected him.

"No, I'm sure it's S.D.I, and you should really get that sign out there fixed. " The man walked over to the front desk and lead against it, painting slightly.

'You can't be serious.' It was times like this Gaara wish he could still kill people, before this guy would have been dead already. But he had to control himself, at least when dealing with clients. Besides, Naruto would be mad if he killed a client. 'Where's Iruka, I'm not going to deal with him.' "You are aware that it's 2 in the morning."

"Yeah, and if it wasn't such an emergency then I would have waited." The man said, lifting his forearm to wipe away some sweat on his head. "I came all the way from the Tea country because I heard you guys could do the job. And who else can you get at this hour?"

'I'll be damned if I waste my time on this idiot, where's Iruka?'

! - ! - !

Konohamaru squirmed and shifted erratically in his sleep, the sheets became entangled around his limbs in a binding hold as he did so. Flashes and images ran through his mind, awakening him from his dream with a syringing headache. No...Konohamaru didn't know if he was still dreaming or not, all he knew was that he was aware that he was somewhat aware. At most he knew the pain.

He saw glints of images, the forest, the forest that use to stand here before the storm. Red...blood...blood marked the trees...the ground...screams... A masked"Ahhhhaaa!" Konohamaru's hands clinched his head and his eyes shot open, as soon as he awakened his headache faded and so did the dreaming images. "What...is...that...?"

Through the flicking lights of the burning flames still lit in the basement, he could see something black, it looked like an extremely dark smoke rising above him. It lifted to the ceiling and instead of spreading outward along the solid barrier, it went right through...

'What was that?' "Oh crap..." Konohamaru hastily untangled himself from the sheets and climbed out of his bed, he was wearing nothing but his boxers and never slept with a cover over him down here. Though it was naturally cool underground the 8 torch dishes and the large flame Konohamaru kept going kept the place evenly warm. "What's going on around here."

A cold breeze blew through from the east, causing each one of the flames to flicker and tilt to the side. For a moment Konohamaru could see his breath... There was nothing here that could generate a breeze, and that breeze was warm, yet he was still able to see the white cloud of his breath. 'Something's here...Something's going on around here...' Konohamaru shuttered involuntarily, his mouth went dry, his hands were shaking, he was afraid...

"I'm...not going to run, I'm not going to run." Konohamaru repeated over and over to himself, his voice shifted from low and weak as what he was saying became less as a calming method and more of a statement. "I'm not going to run. I'm not going to run! You hear me! I'm not going to run!" He shouted, though he'd never been so afraid in his life. "Your not going to scarce me out of here! Not this place!" He knew if he ran now he'd never be able to come back down here, and this place was too important to him.

This place was a shrine, to Konoha, to the leaf, to the Hokage name,...to his grandfather. Everything he held dear, everything all of those things represented, this place was much more important then fear.

"Konohamaru."

"Whaaa!" Konohamaru flinched at the mention of his name, quickly turning around with his hands up offensively, but he dropped them directly afterwords and relaxed. "Sasuke?"

"What's with you?" Sasuke asked, judging by how tense he was Konohamaru was ready to strike. "What are you doing?" Sasuke stood before him fully dressed with a backpack on, he looked as if he was about to go.

"There's something strange going on around here... It's creepy." Konohamaru was tempted to shudder again, he took a step closer to Sasuke and clinched on to his arm. "There's defiantly something here... I saw...something..."

"We'll talk about it when I get back, I have to go on a mission."

"Now? It's like 1 o'clock."

"It's an emergency, I need to go now."

"Can I come?"

"No."

"What? Come on, I've been training really hard and everything, and you said it was an emergency." Konohamaru pleaded "Emergency."

"No."

"I've been working really hard. I want to help..."

"It's too dangerous."

Konohamaru shook his head, looking around the room carefully as his original thoughts returned to his mind. "It...might be too dangerous to stay here. You might as well let me go." he said. "Seriously, I may not have been ready before but this time I am. See watch." Konohamaru did a few quick hand seals that clouded his body in quickly rising smoke. When the smoke clear a mirror image of Sasuke stood, only in an strangely Konohamaru like posture, it was odd.

Sasuke folded his arms as he looked down at Konohamaru using Heinge, making the most pleading face he'd ever seen. He sighed in annoyance, he couldn't resist it... Why not, as long as he kept Konohamaru to the side and out of the way, it'd be good training for him to watch. Yeah...right...that's it. Sasuke looked away "Fine." He snorted. "But you have to do everything I tell you. _Everything_."

"Got it!"

Sasuke looked back down at Konohamaru, only to find that he was fully dressed in blue shirt, black pants and his scarf of course. '? How did he...nevermind.' "Konohamaru, make sure you follow my orders, this is dangerous enough and we don't need any mistakes."

"Ok."

! - ! -!

"This better be an emergency! It's too early for missions." Kiba said in annoyment, leaping in tall steps across the baron field of the remaining dead trees and hard earth. They could see clearly ahead now in a place that used to be obscured with obstacles. It was depressing to see an area that was formally an vibrant forest now a complete wasteland 'Hmm...I should do something about this when I get back. I'm sure if I work around the budget there's something I can do about this.'

Konohamaru would have agreed if he had not been so happy to go along, "What exactly are we suppose to do?" He asked, he was panting a little, it was hard to keep up with Sasuke, Neji and Kiba when they were in a hurry, he wasn't that fast yet.

"Well." Neji lifted his hands to his chin as he did when he was thinking of something. "He wasn't too clear on the details but from what he described there are 4 different types demons attacking the fields, some type of Insects, something large maybe a beast. He also described something underground that he didn't get an accurate description on, and the last one he didn't encounter, it instead just hid in the shadows. The client thinks it might be one of the weaker ones because it didn't try to attack him."

Kiba glanced over at Neji "Insects? You think it's those same one's from before?"

"Doubtful, the description didn't match up."

"Alright." Kiba shrugged, he and Neji had another encounter with the strange insects from before, once may have been a coincidence, twice... "Then what's the plan Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked back at his three teammates, he knew their strengths, and their weakness. Now all he had to do was to figure out how to use them in the right way, which was why he was a good leader of his team because he knew how to do this most effectively "Neji, what type of landscape are we fighting on?"

"Crop fields, but by now the insects have taken out the whole crop."

"Hn...I'll take the insects. Neji you find whatever's underground and handle it, Kiba, you handle the beast. After that we'll handle the last one together." Sasuke said.

"What about me?" Konohamaru asked, still trailing behind and struggling to keep up. His stamina was good though, he might not have had the strength to keep up but he kept himself close enough behind with out expending all of his energy by trying to stay ahead.

"Hmm..." Sasuke wasn't sure Konohamaru could handle anything, the insects would be in too many numbers for him to even attempt to take on. Whatever was underground was too uncertain to risk, and whatever this beast was it sounded too dangerous.

"What about the last one? The guy said it was probably weak." Konohamaru pleaded. "Come on, at least let me check it out."

Sasuke looked back at him...he couldn't protect the boy forever, Konohamaru didn't want that... "Fine, you go check it out and that's all."

"Alright."

"Don't try anything, if you want to be a ninja you'll have to learn what risks you can take and when you need to retreat."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The land lay on the outskirts of the Tea village, a 10 acre farm that was 8 aces of crop. A house and shed lay on another separate acre though it didn't nearly take up that whole space, but it was enough for the 3 people that lived there. The last acre was were rows and rows of trees bearing oranges, Kiba couldn't help but muse how strong those people must have been to work this land by themselves.

It was just approaching dawn by the time they arrived, the twilight between day and night that arrived at 4:30 am at the end of summer and the beginning of fall. There was a small earthquake as they walked along the wide strip of land between the home and the rows of various crops. Sasuke stopped, holding one hand on his hips as he looked around. He could hear the buzzing of the insects from were he was, they were still on the very edge of the fields, most likely feasting there.

"Alright go."

A quick burst of wind followed as Neji and Kiba quickly sprang in to the air and disappeared. Only Sasuke and Konohamaru were left. "Remember what I said." Sasuke told him.

"I will." Konohamaru nodded before running off towards the house.

! - ! - !

Sasuke could see why the man would consider this an emergency, from the looks of it there was some hard work put in to these fields. And these locust demon were destroying all of that work, half of the fields were already eaten by them, Brown insects with glowing red eyes, about the size of his palm. Sasuke took the safest route around the 4 remaining acres, he knew he'd reached the end when he saw the, wilted, brown and fallen stalks of what looked as if it used to be corn. All of them were covered with small bite marks, only those bite marks were at the top, and weren't very large.

They were certainly not enough to make the stalks fall, or to turn them brown in a matter of time as minimal as 2 hours. Sasuke paused to think about this for a moment as he watched a cloud of the brown insects rise and fall in an erratic manner over the remaining plants, it could be compared to the movement of waves.

'Hmm...All of these demons were attracted by the storm's Chakra...so they aren't eating these plants, they're draining Chakra from them.' Sasuke thought, slipping off his backpack and tossing it aside. 'I could just set fire to the crops, but that defeats the purpose. How do I get them away...' How? They were drawn to Chakra so use Chakra.

Sasuke clasped his hands together and concentrated, his body became so tense that it trembled. Chakra began to build through out his body, it covered him like a thick smoked and it shone in a blue aura. Sasuke begin to yell out at the top of his lungs "Hey Demons! If you want Chakra, come and get it!"

His voice was quickly over lapped by the buzzing of wings rubbing together, his Chakra flicked when the gust of thousands of the insects rush past his body as a strong wind did to a small flame. With in seconds he was surrounded by the rushing swarm like a wave had crashed on top of him. That's how it felt, and he was washed away with in them in the same manner. He hadn't expected this, he hadn't expected that speed or that power. He needed to get them off of him for a moment.

Sasuke quickly did a hand seal "Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Doing his best to take in a deep breath with out gaining a mouth full of demons, Sasuke blew out an immense ball of flames strait up into the air, engulfing the locust directly above him and letting them fall in a rain of small, flaming bodies. But it didn't do any good, he was still being carried in a wave of the locust who were fighting to attach themselves to him and his Chakra. 'No...it's not enough...'

Sasuke grimaced and let out a loud cry of pain when he felt himself fly head first through a tree. Then a sharp pain emitted from his back as he felt the demons below him rise upwards in their fight to latch on to him. He was pushed upward in to the air, quickly crossing his arms over his face to prevent them from going for his eyes and mouth, which they seemed to be going for the most. "Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke blew out another blast of flames from his mouth, though he wasn't able to take in a deep enough breath and the flames came out weak and small, barely worth trying.

"Gyaaah!" Sasuke felt like he'd just ran into a brick wall, the locust above him were pressing down, now fighting more feverously to get at his Chakra. He was being smashed from all sides, he could already feel the pressure rising inside of his body, he couldn't even breath. 'Ahhhhh...!' A blunt pain came from his now reddening left arm, The pressure was much worse there. The locust were pushing down harder on one point, somehow they pushed down hard enough to reach and break through a blood vessel with out breaking the skin.

It was too much... Sasuke felt a strange feeling past the pressure and pain, something creeping up the side of his face. Black marks appeared on the right side, his curse seal was spreading down his neck, torso, arms, legs... The pain from the locust's pressure became less and less, until it didn't hurt anymore... 'This...power...it's coming from the curse seal...' It was creating a pressure of it's own, it pushed outward on his body from the inside. It was just as painful.

Sasuke lifted his hands, doing the seals of a fire jutsu but he was unable to finish from the pain. "Gyuuaaah!"

His Chakra flared, the once rising smoke like aura became a torrent of blue flames. The pressure at the center of his body and the source push the oddly colored fire outward from all sides in a sphere that devoured the locust. The flames swirled and churned like a raging sea with in the extending orb, incinerating everything, every last insect of the swarm.

Finally the pressure became too intense, Sasuke was putting out much more chakra then he knew he had. The blue fire cased and Sasuke plummeted from the center, he'd been about 100 feet in the air as far as he could tell, he didn't have time to reassess his estimate, he lost conciseness before he hit the ground.

! - ! - !

Of course there had to be a hole if the man seen what was crawling around underground, of course the underground demon came to the surface. But just enough to pull down one of the trees in the orchard in to the ground and disappear again. Neji saw it do so at least twice before it realized he was there. Now he was fairly certain it wanted him since it hadn't taken any more trees.

With Bakyugan active, Neji stood in the very center of the orchard, trying to find the mysterious demon. It wasn't easy, this monster was quick while it was drilling, it was much slower when it came to the surface. But after it was in the ground again it was much too fast for him, that's why it was suicide to go into one of the holes and enter one of the many tunnels that had been created. Neji knew this, he also knew that this monster was predictable.

Neji stood completely silent, holding his breath for complete silence. Even with the Bakyugan that gave him pre-emptive on the demon's attack, it was still to fast to avoid with the range his blood limit gave him, it wasn't far enough. So he relied on hearing before sight, and he heard what he was looking for. The sound of the ground shaking deep below the surface, it was growing increasingly louder...and till the volume reached a certain level. "!"

Neji reached into his holder and drew an explosive tag, pressing it on to the ground and then jumping into the air just as the demon came into Bakyugan range. It was a strange mixture of a worm and millipede, a worm's body but a millipede's head, but it was at least 7 feet long and 3 feet wide. 'Trepient, an earthworm demon that is an extremely fast digger.' Neji thought as he watch the large head burst through the ground mouth first, it's mouth seemed to open wider then it's own head and every inch of it was lined with sharp teeth, all the way back into the throat.

The trepient devoured the tag along with the dirt in it's attempt to reach Neji, it nearly did with only a few inches to spare, but lucky for him the monster didn't jump.

A loud blast could be heard from inside of it's body, causing the trepient to fall flat on to the ground and squirm for a moment. But it was resilient and kept moving, driving it's head back into the ground and buried it self deeper then before. It was clear that it intended to make a jump this time.

Neji retrieved two Kunais and wrapped another tag around the both of them. He dived backwards just as the trepient fell burst through the ground with it's mouth wide, and this time it jumped, but it flew right over him. It immediately noticed he was on the ground this time and the trepient tilted accordingly, bringing it's mouth down over Neji. Neji smirked... it was over now. He tossed both Kunai's into it's mouth and jumped backwards as the two explosions blew it's body apart

! - ! - !

The beast truly was a beast, a werewolf demon. It stood 6 feet tall with a white fur, claws an inch long on it's hands and feet, bushy tail, and humped back that made it lean forward. It had the strangest eyes Kiba had ever seen, one golden, the other red, both with two narrow slits side by sides for the pupils. They were hypnotic, he was unable to look away no matter how hard he tried.

"Akamaru, mimic me." He said, still watching the werewolf walk towards him, just looking at the beast filled him with fear. Akamaru barked at him from the top of his head, "What! What do you mean you can't?" Of course he knew why, that werewolf had did something, it was those in those eyes, it's effect, It prevented Jutsu use.

Akamaru wined.

"It's ok boy, just stay by me." Kiba said, both of them could hear the nervousness in his voice. They watched the demon lift it's nose in to the air and sniff lightly...it could smell his fear, and he had plenty of it. The wolf growled and ran at him, it's speed was amazing, before Kiba realized it the wolf was right in front of him with it's arm pulled back. Kiba's eyes widened as they once again connected with the wolf's and he lifted his arms to block, "Uhaha!" The claws slashed him brutally, sending him flying backwards and sliding to a stop a few yards away.

Kiba lifted his arms in front of his eyes which he still could stop them from fixing on to the wolf's, both of them were in bad shape. "Ahhh...damnit! It's like...I forgot all of my Jutsu." Kiba gowned as he stood up, shaking his head lightly 'Go on the offensive!' He told himself, charging at the wolf demon with clinched fist. Kiba jumped into the air as he dawned on the beast, trusting his foot into the side of it's head, revolving completely in mid air and kicking it again with the other. The wolf stumbled back disorientedly.

Kiba crouched down as he landed, driving his elbow into it's stomach and then sweeping his foot across the ground into it's legs. Instead of falling, the wolf sprang forward, grabbing him by his biceps and throwing it's whole weight on to his body. Kiba fell flat on to the ground, feeling his legs being pressed, held together between the wolf's knees and it's claws digging into his arms preventing movements. 'Those eyes...' He was once again trapped under the hypnotic effect of those eyes... they were what was filling him with fear, the effect was even more intense now that he was pinned down by the demon...unable to look away.

It tilled it's head back and howled a howl that made Kiba shudder, he flinched when he felt the wolf press it's whole body down and laid on top of him with it's mouth open, sinking it's teeth into his left shoulder. The pain made him cry out loudly, he was sure everyone had heard it. "AAHHHAAAAAAA!"

Akamaru growled, springing off of Kiba's head and biting down on the wolf's ear. The demon growled and pulled back, flicking the small dog off and slashing him with it's claws, batting him away. "Akamaru!" Kiba found the will to pull away from the wolf's eyes, punching the creature as hard as he could.

The werewolf fell off of him and Kiba was on top of it immediately, grabbing the large demon by the neck and sending a furry of punches into it's face. It didn't last long, the wolf drove it's claws into Kiba's chest between his abdomen, drawing another scream , and tossed him away.

Kiba's body smashed through the wooden fence behind him, sending him tumbling into a field of dead crops where Sasuke had taken care of the locust. "uhhhh...Bastard." Kiba clinched his chest as he pulled himself on to his feet. He'd never been in so much pain in his life, but he wasn't going to let this thing beat him, he had no choice for him or Akamaru. He just barely notice that the wolf was down on all fours running at him, Kiba spread his legs and braced himself.

The werewolf dived at him with arms outward, Kiba placed a leg backwards and threw a strong punch at the demon. The werewolf snarled, catching his arm in it's mouth as it landed, Kiba had to step back to keep it from falling on him. Kiba pulled his arm back, raking his flesh across it's fangs as he took it out of the demon's mouth by force. The werewolf ripped at him with it's claws, tearing apart his jacket and causing him to stumble back. 'No...!' Kiba found himself once again locked in those strange eyes, he forced away the fear and pressed forward.

The wolf caught his hands as he was about to strike, and they ended up deadlocked, their hands clasped together, both pushing against each other. And this was when the size difference was really visible. Kiba found himself staring upward at a growling demon about 14 inches taller then him, fear was returning in full force. Kiba wasn't nearly strong enough to stand against it, he found himself sliding backwards and his knees buckling with the wolf barking at him while it leaned down towards his bloody shoulder with it's mouth wide. 'No...I can't...keep...' Kiba's eye's widened again, his mouth falling open slightly as his legs gave way and he dropped to his knees. He pushed back as hard as he could but only managed to slow the wolf down slightly...

The wolf snorted as it moved slowly closer and closer to his shoulder, Kiba was surprised to see it stick out it's tongue and started licking the blood flowing over his skin as it tried to bite him. "Get off...of me!" Kiba fell backwards, rolling and kicking the wolf upward. The wolf flew upward into the air...and curled into a ball. "Huh!" Kiba watched as the werewolf rolled in the air...and preformed a jutsu, Kiba's own Gatsuuga no Jutsu was raining down from the demon's spinning body on to him. Kiba rolled out of the way of the drilling blasts, drawn a Kunai as he did so.

"Hungry huh! Eat this!" Kiba threw the blade into the air, striking the falling demon in the throat and forcing it out of the ball it curled into. "And this is for Akamaru!" Kiba sprang into the air, pulling his left leg back and kicking it in the back. Then he let himself fall will the wolf, drawing both of his legs in to his chest as the demon hit the ground and then landed on it's back with a powerful stomp.

Kiba fell back on to the ground, watching the wolf howl as it choked on the blade in it's neck. 'What a lucky break...' He sighed, it was feeling dizzy from all of the blood loss, but he couldn't stay down. He had to find Akamaru.

"Don't move right now, you'll just make it worse."

Kiba looked up and saw Neji standing over him with Akamaru in his arms, the small dog was already bandaged up and wagging his tail wildly at the sight of the other boy. Kiba smiled, he was looking at the perfect picture. "Hey Neji, what happens when you get bitten by a werewolf?"

"Werewolf?" Neji looked down at him questingly.

Kiba pointed to the 6 foot odd wolf laying just below him. "Dose what I think happen happens or is that just a bull?"

"I doubt it's what you think." Neji said. "But that bite looks pretty bad."

"Yeah, there's more." Kiba lifted his clawed arms and pointed to his exposed and bleeding chest. He smirked, his voice becoming slurred as he talked "I think I'm about to pass out right now."

Sure enough, he did pass out from blood loss a few seconds later, there was now a pool where he lay. "Kiba...just hold on, you'll be alright."

! - ! - !

Konohamaru walked carefully though the empty house, finding little left of it but shreds. He constantly heard things, shakes, rattles, shifts, footsteps... 'It's nothing probably...just trying to scare me into running away...right?' Konohamaru wasn't so sure.

Konohamaru looked around the living room, still dark in the rising sun. But there were nothing in these shadows, he heard things below though... Cracking, popping, snapping, scorching... "What is"

The floor broke through under the boy, everything from the center of the room slid downward in the widening hole that spread until the boundaries of the walls were reached. "Ahhhhhh!" Konohamaru tumbled through the debris of broken wood and furniture into the darkness of the cellar. "Uuffh!" Konohamaru hit the concrete ground hard, the first thing he was aware of besides the pain was that he able to smell the overwhelming sent of smoke and burning...wood...He'd been set up, that floor had been set to break.

Konohamaru climbed on to his feet, looking around the void of darkness only pierced by the dim light from above, even that was somehow being blocked out now, as if someone was putting a top over the hole. "What's going on!" He shouted, the sound of his voice unsettled what was already here, glowing red eyes opened and peered at him through the darkness, 4 or 5 of them all looking undoubtedly at him. He'd never forget that glow, the demon foxes...

'No...! No no no!' Konohamaru shook his head furiously, wishing this wasn't real, he felt paralyzed with fear watching the red eyes in front of him approach with quiet footsteps. 'There's no way out, I have to fight... no...somebody help me!'

The shrouded wolf growled and ran at him, he could tell from the speed of those eyes. "No!" Konohamaru yelled. He flinched and fell backward, feeling the gust of wind as the fox's body passed over him. Konohamaru rolled to the side and got on to his feet, immediately seeing another one coming towards him from ahead. "Stop!" Konohamaru dived forward, just barely slipping under it. Fear...fear...it built, it made him want to scream but he stopped himself from doing so, so it came out in a different way.

His Chakra radiated outward, filling his hands, his feet, his arms his legs, giving him a yellow glow. It pulsed, radiating brighter then dimmer, reaching outward as if being pulled or sucked, then returning to it's normal state only to pulse again. Giving him flashes of the demons when they got close enough, one of orange foxes came suddenly into sight, Konohamaru dived to the side and backed away, his Chakra increasing his speed of movement. Before he would have never been able to get away.

Konohamaru felt a weight fall on to his back and press him down, "No! Get off me!" Konohamaru rolled to the side and out of it's grasp but felt teeth grazing his neck and drawing blood. The boy winced as he ran into a wall, he pressed his hands against it and used it to get onto his feet. Konohamaru once again saw another fox pup come at him from the side, he jumped up a few feet off the ground and thrust his foot into it's face, sending the demon sprawling back into the darkness. With out his speed increases he wouldn't have gotten that hit off.

Before he could hit the ground he felt himself being pinned down again and claws scraping at him. An open mouth was pressed against the back of his head, squeezing down tightly, Konohamaru threw his elbow back and knocked the one pinning him down off, only to flinch again when he saw another fox come into his Charka's light. Konohamaru rolled to the side, then swept his foot towards it and knocked it off of it's feet. It growled at him... and directly after that Konohamaru felt a sudden heat...then an explosion that knocked him into the wall on the other side of the room.

"Gyuaaaa!" Konohamaru fell to the room after smashing into the wall so hard that he was sure it would leave an imprint, he felt blood streaming down his back...off of his shoulders... Konohamaru clinched his eyes and ignored the pain, his life was at stake. He drew the Kunai holstered in the waistband of his pants, watching the 5 pairs of eyes advance toward him. "No...Why are you after me?" He got nothing but a bark as a reply before all 5 of them lunged at him.

"GGGAHHHHAAAAA!"

! - ! - !

"Damnit! I just saw him!" Kisame shouted, looking through the house. "He was just here!"

"Kisame, calm down." Itachi said, looking around the hallway that connected the front door to the rest of the house as he walked into the living room. "Did you notice it?"

"What?"

"The rest of the house is in shambles...but this room is empty." He said, there was nothing here but a hard wood floor. Itachi knelt down on to the floor, looking over it carefully, the floor was old, it seemed as old as this house, everything seemed normal but this room was still suspicious.

Kisame shrugged. "What do you think?"

Itachi was silent...'Sharingan.' His cold, black eyes shifted to blood red as the Sharingan was activated, he looked passed the floor... "There's Chakra bellow us, a black chakra... almost like a void."

Kisame looked down at the floor questioningly. "That's weird, this place doesn't have a basement."

A faint yellow light flickered through the floor boards, barely visible at all, Itachi saw it clearly, it was Chakra, very familiar Chakra. "That's it."

Kisame nodded and drew the large sword on his back, lifting it over his head and driving it into the ground. The wood shattered and dispersed, opening wider as Kisame stuck again. After that it was just wide enough for them to see through, revealing a 10 foot drop to a concrete floor where Konohamaru lay on his stomach. His head was turned to the side, staring at the wall and his eyes were half open, as if in a daze. Blood was streaming from under his shirt and over his shoulders and legs, as well as a few open scars on his arms.

"What the hell?" Kisame jumped down into the hole, he shuddered as soon as he landed. This place gave him a strange feeling. "Kid? You ok?"

"B-Boss? How did you get here ...you saved me."

"Saved you? From what?"

Konohamaru lifted his arms, slowly pushing himself upward with a hiss of pain from his movement. He looked around slowly, his mouth falling open wider and wider with each inch he scanned "There...where foxes. They were here...they did this to me."

Kisame lifted his sword, holding it outward and looking at the tip with a concentration. His Chakra flowed through the sword and Flames ignited over the top have, lighting up the hole room in a red glow . It was completely empty...completely empty, not even any debris. "Nothing's here."

"No! The floor fell in, a lot of them, they were here!" Konohamaru climbed to his feet and looked around frantically, "They were just here until you showed up..."

Kisame looked up at Itachi still kneeling by the hole "What do you think? I don't see anything."

Itachi still had his Sharingan active, and he still saw the same thing. "Your surrounded by some type of Chakra, and Konohamaru, your Charka is badly damaged."

"Badly damaged?"

"Have you been using it down here?"

"Yeah."

"It looked as if something was filtering it out of you, it's patchy and wounded. Both of you should get out of there now."

Kisame grabbed Konohamaru by the waist before he could make any objections and jumped to the surface, setting him down next to Itachi. "What is it? What's the problem?"

A breeze blew through the room coming from below, it was warm, but the white cloud of each breath emitted from the three. Itachi and Kisame looked at each other.

"Guys...look!" Konohamaru pointed down to the hole...or at least where it used to be. Where a cold, dark room once lay was now nothing but a concrete foundation for the house."

"I knew I didn't see a basement." Kisame said, rubbing the back of his head uneasily. He jabbed at the stone with his sword, striking harder and harder after each previously blow he emitted on to the rock. It was real, solid all the way through.

Itachi looked around for any signs of what could have happened... 'That black Chakra...what was it?'

! - ! - !

! - ! -!

Sorry I'm late, that's going to happen a lot now that school's back in. So to make up with it I made this an extra long chapter, an important one too. Sasuke learned something, Kiba...well, you'll see. Nothing really happened to Neji, that's going to change (cough safecough), Gaara keeps unintentionally trying to kill Naruto when he's asleep. And Iruka got bit by something in the last chapter. Oh yeah, Itachi and Kisame (Yay!) save Konohamaru from...I can't give that way. But I can tell you there's a hint in the beginning of the chapter, and it doesn't have to do with Gaara.


	11. Chapter 11: The Fear part 1

Chapter 11: The Fear part 1

"When is Sasuke's team supposed to get back?" Naruto asked, sitting casually on the lobby sofa next to Gaara who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, he hadn't said anything in the last few hours, but that wasn't completely unusual.

"Worried?" Iruka didn't look up when he spoke, he was too busy looking over papers since nearly every form or piece of paper work came through him for overview. And he got the final decision on most things, but that didn't mean much most of the time since if some one wanted to do something bad enough they usually did it. Iruka just had to make sure everything in general was in order, which was becoming increasingly harder with the recent events.

"Not really, I just want to know what it was." Naruto said with a shrug.

"Well, they came back about 10 minutes ago."

"What! How did I miss them, I was sitting right here." Naruto was obviously surprised they'd managed to get past him. "I" Naruto stopped talking, looking slowly up towards Gaara. He knew something was different the moment it started, Gaara's eyes were slowly closeting, his body was becoming looser...and then he just fell, landing on the sofa next to Naruto, completely asleep.

Iruka looked up in surprise, "What happened!"

"That's starting to happen a lot now, he just falls asleep at the weirdest times..." Naruto stood up over Gaara's sleeping form.

"Wow, that kid just can't seem to get it right."

Naruto jumped when he heard Kakashi's voice, he quickly turned around to find the man standing there, reading his book with the same bored expression on his face. "Damnit, don't do that!" Naruto yelled, pointing an angry finger at him "You scared the hell out of me!"

"First he can't sleep at all, now he's just falling asleep uncontrollably...Doesn't he have an in-between." Kakashi's bored voice carried a serous tone this time, he was visibly concerned about it.

"Yeah..." Naruto nodded. "Something's wrong...I gotta find out what it is." He sighed softly as he stared down at Gaara with a concentration now, he was going to figure this out, he had too. All he could think about is how this might not just be a Gaara thing, it was possible that this wasn't a problem since Gaara...was Gaara after all and he'd stop doing this eventually. But he knew it wasn't likely, being asleep was about halfway to being dead...

! - ! - !

"Ow! Ow!" Kiba yelled, sitting in a chair wearing only his boxers, squirming as Neji cleaned his wounds, particularly the one on his shoulder. His arms were already sterilized and bandaged, and the large claw marks across his chest also, he also had bandages around his head and under his chin, and around his neck. An IV with blood sat next to him, he'd lost a lot of it during the fight, the fact is that he shouldn't have been sitting, he should have been laying.

"Stop moving." Neji said, picking up a towel off of the table in the very back of the library where his study resided. He was right next to his bed, and if Kiba wasn't so stubborn then that's where he would have been in. "You'll just make it worse."

"I'd like to see you sit still, and what hell are you pouring on me, acid?" Kiba groaned, this time he grabbed on to the bottom of the chair and held himself down. Neji was sitting on his lap, facing Kiba, while he worked, and it also helped keep him moving around and jumping out of his seat.

"Peroxide, Chakra and Alcohol." Neji told him, setting the bottle down and reaching for the roll of bandages while he wiped off more blood before applying them. "See...It didn't take that long."

"Speak for yourself." Kiba grunted, letting out a breath he'd been holding in during the whole process. "So are you sure nothing's going to happen to me? It got bitten and scratched, the thing even licked me, that has to count for something."

"If anything happens it's probably just the Placebo effect because you keep worrying about it."

"I love it when you say words I can't understand."

Neji gave him a chastising look, "If it make's you feel better then I'll check around and make sure. Ok?"

Kiba nodded "Yeah, that works."

Naruto's voice rang out from the door outside of his room, "Hey Neji!" With in a few seconds he emerging from the library, and immediately gave the two a once over look since Neji was still sitting on Kiba's lap...and Kiba was practically wearing nothing. "Oh, am I interrupting something?"

"Yes." Kiba nodded.

Neji shook his head pulled himself off of Kiba "No."

"Aww, Why not?"

"Not until you heal." Neji said, despite of Kiba's opposition he slid one arm under his legs, the other around his back and scoped him up. Laying Kiba carefully into his bed and pulling the covers over him. "Get some rest, your condition should stabilize soon enough."

Kiba just gave a shrug, "Oww..." Each movement he made seemed to disturbed an injured part of his body, it made him think twice about moving. "Ok."

Neji led Naruto out of his room and back in to the library, closing the door softly, then leaning against it and folding his arms. "So what do you want?"

"It's Gaara." He said, "I think something's really wrong with him."

"Like what?" Neji asked.

Naruto sighed when he was forced to think of it. "Well...at first he said he was having dreams where he accidentally killed me...then ones when he intently killed me, at first I thought it was nothing because it was _Gaara_. But then he started trying to kill me while he was asleep and he can't control himself...It's not strange that he's trying to kill me...well it is but it's strange how he always finds me."

"Always finds you?"

Naruto nodded "I hid one time just to see what would happen and he still found me, and you can tell he's really asleep because every time he get's injured going after a demon he snores a little."

"..."

"And on top of that he just falls asleep in the middle of the day. One minute he's fine, but the next minute he's just out with out a warning."

Neji lifted his hand to his chin as he usually did when he thought, he wasn't sure what to make of this. "When he falls asleep, how long dose he usually stay unconscious?"

"Sometimes it's a few minutes, at the most 15."

"Hmm...Maybe it's Shukaku controlling him." Neji said.

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe...but he told me their was another demon inside of him, I don't think it's Shukaku..."

"Are you sure, Shukaku is said to eat away at his host when they are sleeping, and it's said that they have nightmares."

"Then he would have been having Nightmares before. It's only been happening for like 7 weeks."

Neji knew he wouldn't be able to figure this out just yet, he'd have to go look around for it. "I'll research it and see what I can come up with. I'm sure I can find something on Shukaku, but just incase all try to find some other things that may be the cause."

"I'll help you."

Neji looked over Naruto for a moment, he seemed completely serious. "Naruto? You want to help?"

"Yeah, just tell me where to start."

"...Well, this could be an infection of some sort, start at the 4th row."

! - ! - !

"What are you guys doing here?" Konohamaru asked happily, looking up at Itachi and Kisame. The three of them were in Konohamaru's room in the basement, the only place he knew no one would interrupt them. Sasuke wouldn't, he was soundly asleep upstairs.

Kisame looked around curiously, studying each fire and the Konoha forehead protector that lay under it, Especially the large one at the back of the room near Konohamaru's bed. "We had some...business to take care of at headquarters, mostly clean up and details." He said. "I heard about S.D I, never thought you'd be apart of it."

"It's D.S.I." Konohamaru said, "Or did everyone change it didn't tell me..."

"It's a mistake that everyone's going to making, syndication errors." Itachi told him, apparently their name had been lost in transcription. "Look's like you've made a name for yourself, I'm assuming that your really working for Konoha."

"Nope." Konohamaru shook his head "They told us no, but we did it any way only we couldn't let people know where we were from." hence the missing forehead protectors, and how far away their location was from the village. "But that's where all of the money is going."

"Well, you guys got away with it." Kisame shrugged, "So what the hell happened back there?"

Konohamaru sighed and looked around as if this room was new to him..."It happened just like I told you guys...the same kinda creepy stuff's been happening around here." There was obvious uneasiness in his voice when he spoke about it, Itachi and Kisame could pick it up easily.

"Whatever it was, it defiantly did a number on your Chakra. I wouldn't worry about it, probably just a regular demon, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Konohamaru was silent, he wanted to believe what Kisame was saying, but he'd seen things happen. This was not in his head. "Nah...Hey Boss, Can you train me?"

"Huh? I don't know kid, we gotta go."

"Come on, please!" Konohamaru pleaded "I need it, I haven't really gotten any good training since you guys left. Please!"

Kisame groaned in annoyment, lifting his hand to his forehead. "That's really annoying." Kisame glanced over in Itachi's direction, he was looking at him with that same passive look he always had, but Kisame knew from that look that he was really was really asking what he was going to do. And by that he meant he knew what Kisame was going to going. "Aww shut up." he snorted at Itachi, getting a smirk in response.

! - ! - !

Sasuke lay completely motionless on his bed, starring up at the ceiling with the most blank expression he'd ever held in his life. One arm lay over his forehead, just above his eyes, while the other was still beside him. 'That power...I couldn't handle it...' Sasuke thought to himself, lifting his hand that was laying beside him over in front of his eyes.

He thought back to the field, how he feet immense outward pressure that made his body feel as if it was about to burst. And how through that pain he tried to perform a fire jutsu only he failed completely on account of the pain. More specifically he remember what happened next, he saw it clearly...even more clearly because of his Sharingan. When that outward pressure started he realized that his Sharingan immediately activated on it's own, it was like seen a road map of the very networks of Chakra that created a Jutsu.

And that's what told him how to perform the technique...he'd copied it for the most part. Since he needed much more training and experience in his Sharingan he couldn't copy it completely, he could only see how it worked. And lucky for him he remembered it, and the most distinct thing he realized was how much Chakra was put into every ember of that flame. It was quite a substantial amount he still wasn't sure how he'd achieved or if he ever would again.

But he could follow the road map he'd been given, copy it, and hope to use it again with training. And most of all, he had to give a name to the new Jutsu that had just been created...He felt like naming it after Konohamaru, 'Hn...'

"Konohamaru...maybe"

! - ! - !

Kisame looked around his new surroundings, he was at the valley of a river right under a water fall that extended upwards about 50 feet. The banks were surrounded with green grass and the few living trees that remained in this area after the storm. Flat rocks protruded from the waters just under the falling water, stable enough to hold their weight.

Itachi watched casually from the branch of a nearby tree, his black and red cloak laying against the tree trunk along with the sheathed sword that he usually wore hidden under it.

Konohamaru stood opposite Kisame just in front of the loudly rushing waters, "Alright kid, your best weapon is your Chakra. If your going demon hunting then you don't want to try and fight it physically unless you _know_ you can hold your own, which most of the time won't happen." He watched Konohamaru nod before he continued, adjusting the collar of his red cloud designed cloak. "Well, you know how to trigger it, and you know how to use it to increase your strength"

"No I don't."

"What the hell are you talking about, I seen you do it plenty of times. You used it against Itachi."

"I never knew how I did it..." Konohamaru looked down at the ground as he said it, it'd just happened, he wasn't sure how. It seemed that every time he was truly desperate his chakra started build his strength, he wasn't ever really clear how it happened, he didn't usually have time to think about it.

"Alright, you remember the balancing trick I taught you _right_?" Kisame asked.

Konohamaru nodded, his face straining slightly from the memories he usually had to bring up to trigger the unleashing of his Chakra. He could never get used to that feeling, one minute it was nothing, then the next he felt the quick rush from his head and then the energy. The next part was easy for him, all he had to do was push all of it to one side of his body and then release it gradually. It started to spin on it's own then, and it kept the rotation.

"Now spin it faster."

"Huh?"

"Just do it."

Konohamaru wasn't too good at spinning at high speeds but he knew how to do it. It was simple concentration now, he just had to keep pushing the Chakra from one side to another in a controlled manner. Releasing the energy from his left leg, then his right, then his left arm, then his right. But there was a problem with this way, the more Chakra he added in this manner the more uneven and out of control the spin became. It started to flow out of his body, spinning around him in a yellow whirlpool, Kisame could then see just how uneven the spin was.

After a few seconds it started to hurt, it was tearing up his insides.

Kisame sighed as he walked over to him, kneeling down on the flat stones and pressed one hand against the boy's back while pressing the other to his stomach. From the outside he began to stir the chakra, making it spin more visibly even. The pain subsided because of it.

"How did you do that?" Konohamaru asked.

"I just stirred your Chakra by pushing mine in at center of the spin. And before I teach you anything else, you need to learn how to do it, before you kill yourself." Kisame said, standing up and returning to his former position.

Konohamaru rubbed the back of his head with a little embarrassment. "How do I do that?"

"There are two ways, and you need concentration for both of them." Kisame glanced up at Itachi, "And we all know how much of that you have...Hey Itachi!"

! - ! - !

Somehow Kisame had talked Itachi into helping out, he wasn't much up to it being as tired as he was from his recon mission to Akatsuki headquarters . But he decided to go ahead it anyway. "The key to stirring Chakra." He said "Is control, you need to be able to be able utilize every release point in your body." Itachi stood directly in the center of the waterfall so that the water was running over both of them. This was chosen more for concentration purposes. "There are a few you need to know specifically."

"So your going to tell me em'?"

"I'm going to show you." Itachi knelt down, placing his arms on his shoulders and looking into his eyes. Konohamaru let out a yelp of surprise when he saw Itachi's eyes turn red felt the Sharingan taking effect, but a woozy and disorientated feeling came over him before he could say anything. It faded just as fast, and he didn't seem to feel any different, so he didn't think too much of it.

"What was that?" Konohamaru asked, his eyes falling half-lidded and his voice becoming relaxed and dazed. He didn't think anything of it when Itachi turned him around so that he was facing the river.

"Nothing important, just concentrate on the places I touch, alright?"

"Uh-huh."

He felt one of Itachi's fingers rest on his shoulder, Konohamaru tuned out everything else and concentrated on that one spot. An image came before his eyes, an effect of the Sharingan, it was a white line with a round hole, so small that it seemed minuscule. "This is one... do you see it."

"Yes."

That was just a test. "Now when you feel my hand, focus your Chakra on that one point as best as you can." Itachi knew it wasn't easy to focus Chakra precise enough for it to be the size of of one opening, especially for someone Konohamaru's age. Which is why he showed him the images so that he could see how much he putout and adjust it. "Ready?"

Konohamaru nodded, waiting patiently for Itachi to start. He felt a finger press right below his nipple on his left abdomen, it was firm enough to be felt through his shirt but soft enough to feel as if he was barely being touched. He pushed his Chakra upward in small amounts, but he still put out to much so he dulled the output, that was the only way he was able to get close to the accuracy Itachi instructed. The other boy evened it out for Konohamaru though, pushing down all unwanted energy until there was one single point. "Good." Itachi's voice was present his mind, from the Sharingan.

Konohamaru felt the finger trailing down a strategic line, his touch was so soft...that it actually felt good, better then good...Itachi stopped just below his heart, Once again his voice appeared in the boy's mind. "Here."

Konohamaru complied, pushing out an even, small amount. It was hard to emit a smaller quantity then it was a large, which was probably why this was being done. "Good."

Konohamaru closed his eyes and let out a deep breath when he felt Itachi's finger move over, he was going slowly, keeping the same feather soft touches as before. Water from the falls he stood under rolled over his shoulder and down his torso, mixing the almost massaging flow with the sensation of the very tip of Itachi's finger running over him. He had to fight the urge to moan, how could a simple movement that was so bare that it was hardly even there feel so good?

"Here." Itachi applied a small pressure to the center of the boy's chest to bring him back into focus. Konohamaru nodded and pushed his Chakra outward, it was getting harder and harder to keep enough will power to release small amounts, especially when Itachi was touching him like this. He was so much like Sasuke, even giving off the same feeling Sasuke did when he used the Sharingan on him only more intense. "Good."

Itachi leaned forward slightly, close enough for Konohamaru to feel his breath along the back of his neck. His fingers moved downward for what seemed like an eternity until it reached the top of his stomach, "Here." his words were softer now, yet still holding a strict and instructive tone to it. Konohamaru followed directions, clinching his stomach as he fought to keep down the vast majority of his Chakra that rose up until the smallest amount possible for him came forth. "Good."

Konohamaru was panting now, partly from the strain of restricting Chakra but mostly from Itachi. He was sure that the other didn't mean to cause this reaction, or he knew it was happening but didn't care, but it just felt too good. He felt Itachi's finger trail across his skin, upward again until it stopped just under Konohamaru's right nipple. Another soft point of pressure was applied, Konohamaru hadn't even noticed him say anything this time, He wasn't exactly paying attention. Silently he started pushing out Chakra, he had to stop himself and start over he'd forgotten that he was suppose to be using small amounts. "Good."

Even his voice was starting to make Konohamaru hot, the warm breath became rhythmic, a pattern he expected and anticipated, Even the cold water running over him couldn't cool him down. It was just too much... "I-Itac"

"Control." Itachi whispered, moving downward across his stomach with that same soft touch. Konohamaru's quickly rising chest didn't interfere at all, the touch seemed to move with the rising and falling motion, no matter how quickly it couldn't throw him off. Finally his finger stopped at the boy's navel, pressing down softly to bring Konohamaru back in to focus. Konohamaru expelled his Chakra from his body, though Itachi had to force back more of it then before. "Good."

"I-Itachi..." Konohamaru moaned, letting his head fall back on to Itachi's soaked chest. He could only stay still and pant helplessly as Itachi moved lower and lower along his skin.

"Control." Itachi said it physically this time, his deep voice made Konohamaru shudder. His finger slipped past the navel, he could feel Konohamaru tense more and more with each inch, He could also see that he had an obvious erection. Anticipation built as Itachi slipped past the waist band of his pants and pressed down.

Konohamaru drew backwards into Itachi's hold, his panting increased 10 fold as he forced himself to expel the Chakra. He felt as if he wanted to explode, so it was hardest to control himself this time, but he managed to do so with much restraint. Konohamaru was left completely out of breath now, and leaning against Itachi for support, he wanted him to go lower, he'd never wanted few things more then he wanted that right now...

"Keep practicing those points, it will keep your chakra in balance when your spinning it. You'll be able to move it at higher speeds safely."

Konohamaru opened one eye and looked up at Itachi, he nearly fell when the older boy pulled back unexpectedly and walked away. 'Itachi...'

"Damn kid, your so hormonal."

Konohamaru turned around to see a smirking Kisame standing there with his arms folded, looking down on him curiously.

"No I'm not."

"Oh yeah, I suppose this is nothing then." Kisame said, giving Konohamaru a small poke well _below_ his stomach.

Konohamaru flinched, he'd forgotten about...his little problem, if that was at all possible. He blushed madly and turned away quickly, he found himself wanting to run away for the moment and would have did so if Kisame wasn't stepping on his scarf. "Calm down kid, I saw you dreaming about your little boyfriend once for God's sake, I've seen it all before."

Konohamaru could only blush harder and try his best to think thoughts that didn't get his blood pumping and his body heat rising. 'Water, water, tree, Itachi...!' Wrong choice. 'Grass, grass, waterfall, tree, Kisame...? Huh? Why dose thinking about that make it worse...Ow man!' Konohamaru shook his head fervently and fought to get away harder.

"Alright, if you quit acting so embarrassed, I'll teach you one last thing before I go. Really stop, it's annoying."

"Huh? What?" Konohamaru stopped trying to escape and looked back.

"More of a tip really, your going to have to practice it on your own." Kisame said. "If you release your Chakra at the right time when your about to attack someone, you cause internal damage. But you have to release it very carefully, only places like your knuckles and the soles of your feet. Just think of what Itachi taught you, and keep practicing that before you kill your self."

"Can you teach me something else the next time I see you?"

"Yeah sure whatever." Kisame shrugged, he deny that it felt good to have someone look up to him. He couldn't tell Konohamaru no if he tried.

Kisame jumped on to shore and gathered his sword at the base of the tree Itachi was sitting under. That's when Konohamaru remembered something, and he ran over to them before they left.

"Hey, can I have your forehead protectors."

Kisame and Itachi looked at each other, and then down at the him. "Why?" Kisame asked.

"I really need it, please..." Konohamaru said in the most pleading face he could manage. "Please."

"Damn that's annoying." Kisame snorted, placing the large broad sword on to his back.

"Come on boss, it's important." Konohamaru said it this time in all seriousness as he looked down at the ground, He didn't want to tell them why it was so important to him, he felt to embarrassed to go into detail.

"Why would you want these?"

"It's really... important to me, it's just something I have to do..."

Itachi and Kisame gave each other another look, they were having a conversation no one but them could understand. After years of being partners they could read each other, and Kisame could read Itachi especially well. He had to when being with someone that quite.

Kisame reached behind him and untied the Mist forehead protector with a slash across the insignia. Silently he handed it to Konohamaru, watching the boy's face light up immediately after words. Itachi did the same, not bothering to untie it he just pulled it off of his head and gave it to the boy.

Konohamaru smiled as he looked down at them. "Thanks!"

"Whatever, just don't make a big deal out of it." Kisame snorted, he had to resist the urge to smile after seeing how happy it made him. "Later Kid."

With a blur of black and red they disappeared at a speed Konohamaru couldn't keep up with if he tried.

"Bye Itachi, See ya Boss."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Gaara groaned slightly as he came back to conciseness, he was never able to get use to the feeling of waking up, it was so foreign to him. But it was much better then where he'd just been, these nightmares were enough to even scare him, to make him cry out for escape. He opened his eyes and found he was looking up at the lobby ceiling, still where he was before he'd fallen asleep.

"Finally up huh?"

Gaara sat up, looking over at Naruto who was sitting there, his arms folded and his eyes down toward the ground. He looked blank, emotionless, the same face he'd put on many times in his life when something was bothering him, he never liked to show it when something was really troubling him. "How long was I asleep."

"2 hours."

"Hn..." Gaara closed his eyes and folded his arms also, he looked just as he always did, calm and relaxed. But he was worried... "...It's getting longer each time."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "What did you see?"

"A nightmare."

There was a small silence between them, the only time Naruto was that quiet and looked that way at the same time was when something had happened that he didn't want to talk about. Gaara knew what it was with out asking.

"It happened again didn't it."

"..."

Gaara looked towards Naruto again, now that he was paying closer attention he could see a rip in the right sleeve of his jacket and some blood that lay under it. More rips in his clothing were hidden beneath the orange fabric, Gaara could see that much from how it was situated as if to hide something. "I can't keep doing this." Gaara sighed, his usual monotone hadn't been heard this time, he was actually showing some emotion in his voice.

"Gaara, it's not your fault."

"Don't patronize me! This wouldn't be happening if I was here." He scowled, walking away.

Naruto quickly got up, standing in his path with out stretched arms. "No, stop walking away from me!"

Gaara kept going, intending to walk past him. "I'm not doing this because I want too."

Naruto steeped over into his path once again, "I know that! So why are you going if you don't want too!"

Gaara brushed past him, pushing his arm out of the way. "I'm not going to stay here if I can't control myself, I'm not going to just stay and hurt you Naruto!"

Naruto took a quick step backwards and in to his way again, his head downcast just enough to keep his eyes shrouded in shadow. "You say you don't want to hurt me? That's exactly what you'll be doing if you leave!"

"No... I wont stay here and let myself keep doing this!" Gaara shouted. "This is what has to be done."

"No it's not! Why are you giving up so easy!" Naruto asked desperately, his lifted arms shaking as tears formed in his eyes, "Why are you just running away!"

"I'm not running!"

"That's exactly what your doing!"

A force came between the two, pulling them apart. Sasuke move in to the gap he'd created, keeping the two separated. Neither of which realized how close they'd gotten.

Naruto took a deep breath and sighed. "You can't go, if you do your going to keep falling asleep. And it's going to get longer and longer until you don't wake up at all. Do you really want to be trapped in a nightmare?"

"It doesn't matter what happens to me, all I know is that if I stay around you I can't stop myself from trying to kill you... until it finally happens." Gaara seemed to have calmed down too, his voice was normal again but his voice held obvious fear. "Which one do you think is worse?"

There was another silence between them, both Gaara and Naruto just looked at each other with out words. There was a determination in Naruto's eyes, one that came with complete dedication and resolve, Gaara never forgot that look, or when he first saw it during their fight... He could only turn and walk away, he didn't want to leave...but he wasn't going to let this happen anymore...

"I'm not giving up on you Gaara."

Gaara stopped, but he didn't look back, he just walked out of the lobby and into the hallway, followed by a loud and sudden pounding sound. It was him punching through wall.

"Trouble in paradise." Sasuke said, finally letting go of the other boy.

"Shut up jerk." Naruto said, his voice was so quite that Sasuke barely heard it.

Naruto was always loud, especially when talking to Sasuke, and that's why it made him worry. "You two make enough noise to wake the dead."

Naruto turned away and looked toward the ground, he hadn't meant for anyone else to hear that, he was embarrassed that of all people Sasuke had. "..."

"If you really want to save Gaara..." Sasuke stared as he walked towards the hallway and back to his room "Do it now, he's not going to stick around much longer."

"I know...but I have no idea how, I don't even know why it's happening."

"Just keep searching, I've never known you to give up so easily."

"..."

"If he dose leave..." Sasuke said "You'll never see him again."

"Yeah... I know." Naruto watched him leave... he was right, that was all Naruto could think of. With that thought he deiced to headed back to the Library, he'd search every corner of the world for an answer if he had too.


	12. Chapter 12: Fears, Doubles, and Safes

Chapter 12: Fears, Doubles, and Safes

Kiba shifted and turned lightly in the bed, moaning softly with each movement. "Ahhh..." A strange feeling came over him in his sleep, making him squirm uneasily. His body broke out in to a cold sweat, panting heavily as he clinched any and everything that came into his range. "Neji..."

He was calling out for Neji, but the other boy wasn't here, he'd fallen asleep outside in the Library. Which may have been deliberate to keep Kiba from getting any ideas in his current state, and he would have.

"Uhhaaa." Kiba turned on to his stomach, burying his head into his pillow while his fingers clawed at the mattress as if he was trying to get himself out of something. "Neji..." he called out, sweat dripping from his hair and soaking the cloth beneath him. With in seconds it became completely wet, the face down boy found himself inhaled the moisture and just as quickly his eyes shot open and he woken.

He coughed, pounding his chest hard enough that it should have hurt especially with his injures from the day before.

The first thing he did was lift his nose into to the air, "What the hell? What is that?" Kiba looked around and realized he was the only one here, not sure where either Neji or Akamaru were. Then he realized how much he'd been sweating though oddly enough he was still cold with the covers over him, That scent was himself, and he knew his scent wasn't that odd. "No way...I must be imagining things, It's not possible that my scent could change like that."

Kiba pulled the covers off of him and rolled out of bed "It's probably just my imaginat" Kiba turned around and looked back at the bed, the sheet, the covers, everything was ripped and shredded. The pillow alone had more bit marks then he cared to admit, as a mater of fact he had a few feathers sticking to his cheeks that he knew of. "What's with me tonight...must have been a bad dream."

Kiba sighed and wiped away the sweat from his forehead, which also made him realize something. There was no pain. His arms still should hurt, his shoulder should be aching horribly from all of the turning and from lifting his arm, and he didn't even want to think about how his chest should have felt with all of this sweat. "...?" He curiously unbound the bandages over his forearms and wrist, finding no trace of the claw marks from the day before.

"Huh?" Kiba grabbed the cloth around his torso, ripping it apart as he'd done the bed subconsciously and just as easily, once again he found the marks that should have at least left a scar was just like new now. "No way...' he must have been dreaming...Kiba slowly unwrapped the bandages over his shoulder...even the deep gash from the bite he'd suffered was gone.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Iruka rubbed his head as he stared at the clock on the wall in his room, "I guess it's only fitting we have to get up this early, since they did last time." He said "Are you sure she said we have to do this before sunrise Kakashi?"

"Yeah." Kakashi said, putting on his vest with a small yawn, 3 in the morning seemed early enough to get to their destination and handle the demon. They were heading to one of the surrounding areas of the Sand Village, "I guess the girl knows what she's talking about, we'll soon find out."

Iruka just shrugged and pulled on his pants, "So what are we up against?"

"Neji says it's a mirror demon." Naruto's voice called from the door with a paper in his hand, he'd come in unnoticed by Iruka, Kakashi just didn't say anything.

"Don't sneak up on people." Iruka scolded.

"Oh sorry." Naruto shrugged "Neji said it creates copies of anything, so we should watch out for false paths, traps, people...anything. He also said it has the characteristics of a new born, so we should fight it before sunrise."

"Why is that?" Iruka stood up and slipped on his Chuunin vest, wiping his eyes softly in an attempt to wake himself up. He hadn't gotten much sleep tonight, he was helping Naruto in the Library, from the looks of it Naruto hadn't went to sleep at all.

"He doesn't know, the details are sketchy and it's something he has to translate."

Kakashi walked past him, heading down the hall to the Armory "Tell him not to worry about it then." Kakashi opened the door and looked around as he stepped inside "We'll be gone by the time he figures it out."

"Alright, I'll go find Gaara too." Naruto paused for a moment..."Where is he?"

Iruka placed a hand on his back reassuringly, "Don't worry, he's on the roof. Just hurry if we want to get there before sunrise."

Naruto sighed in relief. "Give me 30 seconds."

! - ! - !

"Konohamaru?"

"..."

"Why are you still up?"

Konohamaru opened his eyes, he knew he couldn't fool Sasuke but he tried anyway. "I don't know...how did you?"

Sasuke sat up, glancing over at Konohamaru beside him through the dim light of the fires that hadn't gone out yet. From the far corner where his bed lay it was like a nightlight, he tapped his forehead "Your Chakra is all over the place."

Konohamaru was sure he was using small amounts when he was practicing stirring, either he wasn't using small enough amounts or it was because of Sasuke's Sharingan, maybe both. "Oh, sorry."

Sasuke dropped his hands into his lap lazily, watching as Konohamaru sat up and climbed over him to get off the bed. Now that he was from under the shade of the cover Sasuke could see he was wearing nothing but a blue shirt, _his_ shirt. The shirt fell to his upper thighs, hiding most of his nudity, but there were still the endless, golden-skinned legs, the spritely, delicate features, those expressive brown eyes... Not the time for that.

"I'll be back, I'm going to get some water or something." Konohamaru said as he cross the large room.

! - ! - !

Neji let out a sigh of annoyment as he placed the last book in to it's place, this was becoming tedious, cleaning up after Naruto.

"So that's were you were." Kiba called up from the foot of the ladder Neji was using, "I never realized how many books you had, what's that one?"

"A manuscript of ancient demon afflictions. What are you doing up so late..." Neji climbed down the ladder, turning around and coming face to face with Kiba. "Kiba...your"

"Fully healed, yeah, freaky huh?" Kiba commented, poking a few places where he'd been wounded the day before. "Any ideas?"

The Bakyugan activated as Neji looked over Kiba carefully, walking past his side, lifting his arm, checking his back... "This...This can't be...hmm..." Neji disabled the bloodline, there was only one sign related to this, his chakra was in excess. "I'm going to need more references..."

Kiba scratched the top of his head, "Still think it's Placebo?"

Neji shook his head, "Hmm...well since your up now it's a good a time as any. I'm going to a location that holds a volume of a rare index I may need."

"Want company?"

"Sure, as soon as you get dressed."

Kiba rubbed the back of his head, he'd forgotten about that. "Yeah...oh yeah, you ever find anymore clues about that safe? I really want to know what's inside."

Neji glanced over at the steel box sitting in front of the door, he'd done the previous action more then he cared to admit, the same went for how much he thought about Lee latly. "Not yet...but" Neji reached into his back pocket and retrieved the black stone Lee was going to give him as a gift "I'm sure this has something to do with it, that's another reason I need these books, they have more information on this. I'm sure Lee knew exactly what it was but..."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Ok, we're here, now what?" Naruto asked, looking around at the familiar place he'd been led too. The debris of fallen and uprooted trees still remained though most were rotted through, anything green had long since died out and withered away. The wooden boards and such from the cabin that used to rest on this land were still scattered around since the storm had passed over it. This was the same place that used to reside in a deep forest near the Sand village and a place Gaara, Kankuro and Temari used as a halfway point after missions, now it was just turning into a desert.

"There's suppose to be a tunnel were it was spotted..." Kakashi looked around, it wasn't easy to see the location in the dark.

"I know the place your talking about." Gaara said, of course he knew the place. It was where he found that small hour glass with his and Naruto's name carved into it's base, that's what started it all. Naruto still carried that around though no one but Gaara knew it, it was on a chain he wore under his shirt. Not that either of them knew where it came from but Naruto carried it around anyway "It's just ahead, I'll show you."

Gaara shifted with strap on his gourd as he started walking in the indicated direction, everyone else followed. "You can see it?" Iruka asked, he could tell Gaara was feeling anxious about something, which always was serous. So he gave Kakashi a stubble elbow and pointed to Gaara.

Kakashi just nodded.

"No, but I know what place your speaking of...and by the way, who was the client?" Gaara asked, he wanted to know why this mission was given so closely to his home village. They clearly still wanted him back, that was made obvious by the 2 previous attempts by the same hunter, though he didn't have a name yet.

Kakashi looked as if he'd just realized something. "Oh, I probably should have told you it was your sister."

"My...Sister?" Gaara looked back at him, Kakashi really should have told him this before, but Kakashi was Kakashi. "Hn."

! - ! - !

Konohamaru rubbed his eyes as he emerged from the basement, he'd been focused enough to put on a pair of pants before he'd reached the first floor. But other then that he'd just focused on trying to fall asleep. Of course, he knew why he couldn't get to sleep, part of him didn't want to try for obvious reasons.

"Hey Konohamaru, nice look."

Konohamaru looked back toward the stairs at the end of the hall, Kiba had just descended with Neji behind, smiling wildly. "What are you talking about?"

Kiba pointed down below his waist line "You don't have any pants on."

"What? Yes I" Konohamaru looked down at himself, no, he hadn't put on his pants but he did put on his scarf, then he noticed he really was sleepy, more so then he was downstairs. Maybe it was actually getting around and moving that did it...it was possible. "Oh crap, I could have sworn I just did that."

"Then you should probably go back to sleep." Neji said, passing by him indifferently.

"Where are you guys going?" Konohamaru asked.

"Get some books, we should be back soon." Kiba reassured him, giving him a quick wave. "See ya, and when Akamaru wakes up, tell him I'll be back soon."

"Ok." Konohamaru nodded in dissonance, he really was quite sleepy, so much he felt like he wouldn't make it back downstairs. So he turned to the bathroom, there was no way he'd let himself pass out with no pants on, not that even that didn't sound bad right now.

Konohamaru shut the door behind him, making his way over to the sink. First he looked at himself in the mirror, or tried to, he was too short to get a decent view. With a sigh he propped his elbows on the fixture, shifting control to is hands and then pushing himself up to examine his face. With his legs dangling loosely below he thought he looked...weak, tired, oddly ironic considering how he felt downstairs, "I can't fall asleep up here..." Konohamaru let himself fall down on to the ground, reaching forward and turning on some cold water.

Maybe he thought it was his imagination while he held his hands under the nozzle to splash water on to his face that it was taking so long for the liquid to come. He could hear it running, it sounded thick, blocked maybe "What the!" Before he could pull his hands back they were covered with blood from the faucet, running through his fingers, down his arms, sticking to him, infusing his skin with it's scent

"Ahhhaaaaa!" Konohamaru stumbled backwards into the wall, falling to the ground with his arms outward as if he didn't want them to be attached to him.

The thick, crimson liquid rushed in large volumes out of the facet that were large enough to make it overflow and stream down on to the floor. "Ahhhaaa!" Konohamaru slipped as he backed away, bumping his head on the towel rack and falling again. His eye's vision were forced towards the shower door above him where he could see a cloudy image of a person in the glass looking down on him, whispering words. "Whhaha!" He pulled himself up and scrambled to get away, but in his mad dash to the door he slipped on the large pool of blood that now covered the floor, banging his head again on the wall and falling face first, it was as if something was tripping him.

His view was scattered again and refocused on the mirror...he saw that shady figure again, as if it had just walked past the reflective glass though Konohamaru didn't see anything else. Something was here and he knew it long before he saw what he saw, "Stay away from me!" Konohamaru shouted, his chakra rising like an ascending geyser until it reached the surface with force, enough force to blow apart the wall he was leaning against and open a path to the hallway and out of that cursed room.

He immediately started feeling drained, his Chakra was being pulled visibly upward, out of him. He started feeling weaker, dizzy, sleepy...just as he had when he came upstairs, "No! It set me up again...Leave me alone!"

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke called out, running towards him fully clothed and Sharingan flaring in a glowing red. He knelt beside the panicked boy who was jostling backwards away from the blood seeping towards him from the floor but even though he was moving his Chakra was still being pulled towards that room.

"Sasuke!" He yelled, panting so much that he could barely speak, all he could do was stutter incoherently and point at the bathroom through the demolished wall. Though the running blood in the faucet was now cold water, Sasuke got the point, and with his Sharingan he could see...something made of a cloudily black energy, Chakra, mixed with yellow, Konohamaru's absorbed Chakra, walking towards them, or Konohamaru more specifically.

"Stay away from him!" Sasuke shouted, standing to his feet in front of the boy as he glared into the small room. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

A cold breeze blew through the hall, making both of them shutter from the chill and the view of a their breath floating away in a stream of white mist. All of the doors blew open...then slammed closed.

"Sasuke..." Konohamaru clinched the carpet with his dripping wet hands as he called out to him in a shaky voice. "Is...Is it over?"

"Yes, It's ok now." Sasuke said, the chakra was gone and it looked safe, but he had no idea if it was actually over. "What was that?"

"I don't know but...it I saw it again." Konohamaru said, holding the wall as he climbed to his feet, his hands were shaking as he drew it back and tried to get as much as he could of it off. His first instinct was to head for the bathroom, but that wasn't going to happen. "I get it now, it's after me for some reason."

He'd never heard the boy sound so scared, he never wanted to hear that voice again, Sasuke knew that much. "What is?"

"I don't know, but yesterday it was downstairs and it was trying to do something to me in my sleep." Konohamaru said, slowly edging toward the lobby.

Sasuke followed, he wasn't nearly as afraid and wanted to find out what this thing was more then he wanted to leave, but for the sake of Konohamaru he could remove himself for a while 'That's what he was telling me about yesterday morning...Damnit I should have listened.'

"And when we went on the mission yesterday...when I went to check out the house, Ita" Konohamaru stopped himself, he was almost telling Sasuke everything. Bad idea. "It trapped me and tried to drain my Chakra." Or at least that what Itachi told him, and as far as he could tell those foxes he saw down there weren't real. "Iuhgot out though."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were really hurt, I didn't want to wake you up." Konohamaru jumped across the hall and into the lobby, slamming the door shut behind him before let out a sigh of relief.

Sasuke looked around curiously, hadn't anyone else heard what happened? If Konohamaru's screaming didn't do it then that explosion was sure enough to alert any and every one nearby 'Everyone must be gone...but this early?'

"And when I came up here, there was just blood and...it happened so fast." Konohamaru sighed, "But I saw it, in the mirror, it was a guy, and he kept saying... Die Reedamaru..."

"Reedamaru?" Sasuke looked at him questioningly as the boy walked outside, falling on to the hard ground outside and wiping off the blood in hands in the grass as best he could. He knelt down next to the boy and laid his hand on the boy's shoulder, "Calm down...just calm down."

Konohamaru looked away from his hand, trying to forget as best he could that his back, his legs and most of his shirt, Sasuke's shirt, were covered in the liquid. Why hadn't he wore pants! "O...ok..."

"Do you know anything about that name?"

Konohamaru sighed, he had a lot of explaining to do... minus Itachi and Kisame if he could at all manage it. At first he debated weather or not he should say anything at all, but what other choice did he have right now?

! - ! - !

Gaara looked carefully over the familiar cave that had taken an unfamiliar appearance, though he knew this was the right place, there wasn't another place like it anywhere nearby. "This was a lot smaller before." he said, and he was right. There used to be just a shelf and a caved in path, severely limiting space in room to enough for one person. That path had been opened after they'd taken the tunnel under Iruka's basement and by some luck they'd taken the right turns and ended up in this same spot.

But one path was now 4, each one oddly similar to the other.

"This is defiantly the right place." Iruka looked between the paths in mild confusion, he was sure he remembered which trail had been the correct one, when he looked twice he got confused, and each time he became more and more uncertain "But don't you think it's odd that the demon would make 4 paths instead of just mirroring the one that's already here once?"

"Not for a set up." Kakashi replied. "So it's probably going to be hiding in the true one."

"Hmm...So were going to have to spit up if we want to make it before dawn." Iruka sighed, he wasn't sure why that was so important but he didn't want to find out. He was never very lucky, and he was about to test that luck right now. "So take your pick everyone...and Gaara, maybe you should stay here."

"Why?" Naruto asked, he looked back at Gaara. "Is anything wrong with you?"

"Not really." Gaara said.

"I'll take this one." Kakashi pointed to the one on the left, promptly walking towards it considering how pressed for time they were. "Just scream if you need me, the echo is really bad so I'll probably hear it."

"Very comforting... I guess this one is mine then..." Iruka looked at the one next to Kakashi's nervously, he didn't seem too sure of his choice and he didn't know what would happen if he chose wrong. Luck was never one of his strong points. "I hope I'm right."

Naruto shrugged as he watched the man take his chosen route, nothing seemed wrong with Gaara to him, or at least that would warrant banning his participation in this mission. "See, nothing's wrong with you, Iruka's just" Except the fact that he was cut off by the sound of slow, heavy breathing. Naruto looked over at Gaara, he'd already fallen asleep while he was talking. "Great..."

Naruto sighed, he really had to figure something out quickly, these sleeps were coming more frequently and lasting longer. Gaara would probably be out for an hour this time, "Sorry Gaara, I'm going to have to leave for a while." He said, but he quickly finished as if Gaara was awake to hear him and he didn't want him to get the wrong idea. "But I'll be back as soon as I'm done." And with an approving nod to himself he took the far path on the right, which he also hoped was right, and walked into the darkness...Before he could take 5 steps his ankles were grabbed by something grainy and barely solid but firm.

Naruto froze, he wished it wasn't, hoped, begged, but he knew it was sand.

Naruto turned back, Gaara was walking slowly towards him, fully asleep and with eyes closed he was constricting Naruto with the sand. "Gaara! Wake up!" Naruto kicked forward in a attempt to break free with no success, the last thing he wanted to be doing is this, especially now. Before he knew it Gaara had sprang on him was pinning him down with a strength Naruto knew from experience he couldn't break away from. "Gaara!"

He didn't know what was controlling Gaara, but it made him mad, furious, why wouldn't this thing just leave Gaara alone. And it was after Naruto specifically. "Gaara...wake up, Wake up!" Naruto yelled, struggling, punching, kicking, all with no avail. He felt the ground bellow him become weaker, like sand, Gaara was burying him and didn't know he was doing it.

Naruto gave one last attempt to break free in a desperate struggle but his hands were already pulled and sealed underground and his arms were still being pushed down by Gaara. With all of the other's training over the past few months it was literally impossible for Naruto to fight against him physically. His ears were plugged with sand and minerals from the granulated earth swallowing him, his legs were covered completely, his stomach was halfway in and the rest of his torso was following quickly after.

He felt his head starting to sweat under the hardening ground now that his face was the only thing still visible. He was afraid, actually afraid, "Gaara! Stop" He got a mouth full of sand before he could finish his statement, the best he could do was spit it out and clinch his mouth and his eyes closed...

There was silence, all that could be heard was cracking from the hardening ground below...

"RRRRAAAAHHHHHGGGG!"

The ground burst open from a transparent crimson claw ripped through in an explosion of red chakra, knocking Gaara backwards in Naruto's reemergence. The marks on his face were bolder, about 2 inches wider, his canines extended far enough to push down his lower lip and become visible on the outside of his mouth. His hair grew to the point were it nearly covered his deep orange eyes, both pupils had morphed into thin animalistic slits. His body was outlined in the red chakra, the tips of his toes and fingers blunted into red claws, a nearly transparent tail had sprouted from his lower back and foxes ears were protruding from the top of his head.

The Nine-Tails intervened before Naruto could.

That's when Gaara woke up to bloody slash across his cheek and forehead, something powerful enough to break through the sand had been used on him. He couldn't help but see Naruto nearly transformed from all of the Chakra he was putting out though most of it wasn't his, not that he didn't already know what was happening before he saw it. And he could guess from the lapse in memory.

There was a long silence after that, What could Gaara say to this? Sorry? Sorry I'm still a murder and I keep trying to kill you? This was way beyond an apology.

Naruto let his Chakra fade, scrabbling to think of a lie to tell, something to downplay this. "Gaara...I-It's uhNot what you think. You just fell asleep and"

"Naruto..." Gaara shook his head, "I know it happened." This felt so out of place, He should have been the one trying to lie to Naruto not the other way around. How could Naruto still want to stay with him after all of this, Naruto couldn't even go two seconds with out watching his back around him. But yet he was trying to lie about it? Posing as if everything was fine to keep him and not push him away.

"...I'm ok so don't worry about me." Naruto smiled and rubbed his head, putting that mask he constantly wore complete with a humored voice. He hadn't used it in a while, it felt bad to need to use this look again. It would have even fooled Gaara if he'd done this sooner.

"No, your not. And it's my fault." Gaara gave him one last, longing look before he turned and walked away at a heightened pace. "I keep hurting you, I wont allow my self to do that to you anymore."

"Gaara, Wait! Please just listen to me!"

! - ! - !

With the part of his mask lifted over his eye pulled down Kakashi walked through the familiar darkness of the path as he had done before to survive the wrath of the storm. It had worked then. So it naturally felt strange coming back to his once haven to fight something that wanted to do him harm.

He didn't have the fully abilities of an Uchiha even though he had the eye, he was beginning to wish he had since he couldn't see a thing. Not that he didn't try, a fire jutsu hadn't sufficed to produce any light, as if it was being swallowed... so either he was heading down a false path or going the right way. Which left him in the same situation as he started, frustrating.

"This had better be it..." He said in annoyment, pausing in front of a light that appeared to be distant, but from what he could see it was just dim. "Looks that way." Kakashi nodded in agreement with himself, then reached outward, only to have his hand hit a solid, unseen barrier and find a exact reflection in front of it. What was more odd then the fact that he'd almost ran into a mirror was the fact that he could see a image...no matter how close he had to be to see it, it was still odd. 'If this is a mirror...where is the light coming from?'

Kakashi looked around, with no avail, until his eyes reached the ceiling and just barely saw a ray of light. It was bare, diagonal, a hole in the ceiling or more of a hole in the ground to be exact. It had been reflecting off the mirror and was what he saw, Unfortunately, that light was "Sunlight...The sun has already risen?" Kakashi averted his eyes back towards the reflective surface he was in front of, but he was forced to step back, just before a pile of dirt and dead tree roots plummeted to the ground followed by enough light to make everything visible as if he was outside.

The ground was already unstable from the storm, and the volume of his voice had been the last straw with obvious results. Kakashi found himself looking in to a mirror image of himself, only strangely dull, his clothing looked as if they were splashed with gray and his face also held a darker shade to it. This was obviously the demon, a mirror that didn't reflect right, what else could it be?

Kakashi drew a Kunai holstered in the waist band of his pants and drove it into the mirror with all of his strength. The forceful contact caused it to shatter into thousands of pieces around the tip of the blade, all except for one pieces of it, the reflection. Where the image of Kakashi had stood now a physical body of the same dull mirror of himself, "So this is why it's not supposed to be fought in the daytime, the flame's light couldn't be seen but UV light can, so ...what's next."

The dull copy looked at the real Kakashi, tilling his head to the side questingly.

Kakashi jumped at him, slashing it across the chest with the kunai, but his hand was grabbed before he could pull it back. It defiantly had his reflexes "I see you've got everything but the appearance right." Kakashi punched it in the face and pulled his arm back sharply while it was dazed.

"I...am you.."

"I see you didn't get my speech patterns." Kakashi sent a kick into it's stomach, "Don't feel bad, It took years to get this good at talking." He jumped into the air, rotating just enough to throw another blow with his other foot.

The copy lifted it's arm in front of it's head and blocked, then drove a punch into his stomach, knocking him to the ground "You...are me?"

"I wouldn't go that far." Kakashi flipped on to his feet "Your just a knock off demon with Identity problems ...I can't let you go around looking like me, what would people say?" Kakashi hadn't realized he could have handled this better, instead he'd gone understandably for the kill. He tossed the Kunai at the copy, but it caught it easily and threw it back. Kakashi tilted his head back and dodged.

...The copy stumbled backwards unexpectedly, hunching over and coughing violently. It was confuting, more then enough to make Kakashi more defensive of the curious action. Since he wasn't sure what to expect he watched for a few seconds while the copy expelled a clear liquid from it's lungs before clearing it's throat and catching his breath. "Your taking my life..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kakashi paused for a moment, how did it get from 3 word sentences to accusations?

"That's why you want to kill me, your trying to take my life."

Kakashi snorted 'It must have my memories also, which would explain why it things that.' "It's my life, you just copied it."

"Nice try." The copy jumped upward out of the hole, landing on the surface a few feet above. "But say away from Iruka."

Kakashi paused again, A bad copy of himself was telling him to stay way from Iruka? It had really and truly copied him down to a tee, the only thing off was the dull colors. This was a problem, a big problem. "Your a copy! A demon copy! You don't have Iruka, nor anything." Kakashi said firmly.

The copy only looked down at himself, and then at Kakashi. "That may be true, but I know and feel only what I know and feel now, and I know I don't want you touching them..."

"You want my life?" Kakashi released a light laugh and relinquished the thought, it really was amusing "I am highly over rated."

"Keep away."

"I have a better idea, you keep away."

The copy didn't reply, just disappeared in a blur of speed and a gust of wind form his sudden departure. It seemed more humanistic now that it was being protective of something, even if _he_ was a demon. Kakashi knew he couldn't catch up with him, not to sound pretentious but he wasn't good enough to catch himself. More importantly he wondered what happened now that the copy had left the path, did that mean the fake ones disappeared? And what happened to others who were in them?

And the copy had gotten very passionate about Iruka.

"Everyone Get out of here now!"

! - ! - !


	13. Chapter 13: Fears, Doubles and Safes par...

Chapter 13: Fears, Doubles and Safes part 2

"Are you sure about this?" Kiba asked, climbing deeper into the hole as carefully as he could manage. He kicked the dirt wall, making a grove large enough to fit his foot in to before he let go of the rock he was holding and took another step downward. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous, he was in complete darkness climbing down an unstable wall made of dirt, rocks and what ever roots managed to make it this deep down.

"Yes." Neji nodded though he knew Kiba couldn't see him, his Bakyugan allowed him sight clearer then a regular person in broad daylight "And be careful."

"Stop worrying I feel fine...but you couldn't have done this in the daytime?" Kiba snorted, feeling the dirt he embedded his foot in slipping away, he pulled it back and dug it in do a place below before it caved completely. "Or brought a flashlight?"

To be honest, Neji hadn't expected him to come, or to be out of bed, when he took this expedition. Nor did expect it to contain so much physical labor. On the other hand these books were practically non-existent, they may not have even been written by humans and from the details described about them they probably weren't. There was no way they'd be acquired, easily, and he should have known there was a catch when he was just told the location.

"So what's the deal with these books?" Kiba asked, "And why are we going in a hole to find them?"

"Well..." Neji leaned back slightly to test the root he was reaching for, he knew he was taking a risk but if wasn't stable he'd fall anyway "There used to be a demon neat here, of what type I'm not sure, but when the demons died out people went in to the land books were discovered. Unfortunately before someone decided to remove them an earthquake came and weakened an area already unstable from the tunnels underground dug by the demons. So the land fell through and the books with it, or so I've been told. But I don't think that earthquake was natural."

"And we're going to look for them." Kiba said, letting out a small yawn since it he wasn't used to being up this early.

"Right." Neji looked down, he could see ground bellow, more like a deposit of piled up earth that blocked the hole from being any deeper, and it looked stable enough. "We can jump down from here, you think can handle it?" They didn't really have a choice since it was blocking the lower levels of the tunnel.

Kiba rolled his eyes "I told you I'm fine." He said, pushing back off the wall and falling an unknown distance, each second he was ready and waiting for impact. He landed smoothly on uneven ground, he figured was standing on objects that had piled up on the fall just from the feel of it, just as Neji had thought. "See, I'm alright."

Neji jumped down after him, gaining his footing and a stable standing. "It's somewhere down here, so be careful and watch your step."

Kiba slowly moved backwards until his back was pressed against the wall and stayed there, he didn't feel all to conformable moving around down here when he couldn't see. This wasn't one of the safest places to go exploring blindly in. "Yeah... I'll just be back here."

Neji gave him a small nod, he could still see him with his Bakyugan so it was easy to keep an eye on him, he didn't trust Kiba's sudden healing so he preferred he stayed inactive anyway. "I think I see something..." Neji walked slowly up the pile of rock and debris, treading carefully up the parts of the hill that crumbled when pressure was applied. A few feet from the top he stopped and knelt down, brushing away a layer of dust and dirt until something loosely a red color appeared, dull from years of being buried.

It was the binding of a book.

"I found one." Neji dug around it, knowing it would be fragile, the lifted it lightly with both hands only when it was completely unearthed then looked the object over. What appeared to be the title was written in a strange script, a demon script, "This is it, they are defiantly here but...It's made of something I've never seen before, it's still in good condition even in this environment." Neji brushed his finger across the cover in an attempt to categorize how it feel, noticing there was a strap across the binding to protect the pages.

With no need to worry about damaging them in haste he started digging more quickly, uncovering more books among other things. And Kiba just sat back against the wall in wait...'?' A light scent in the air became just barely detectable, the scent of something with a low PH balance that was distinctly similar to bleach or ammonia. "Neji..."

"Yes?"

"Are you finished yet?"

"Almost, these books are close to the surface so a should have all of them momentarily."

"You better hurry, we've got something coming our way." Kiba warned "It's those bugs again."

Now Neji was interested, "How many?"

"Hard to say, But they're coming fast."

'Damnit...' Neji gathered the 8 books he'd excavated so far, he was sure there were some left but there was no time to get them all. He couldn't risk fighting down here, not with Kiba. "Alright then, Take these." Neji ran over to him, dropping 4 books in to his outstretched hands. "How close are they?"

Kiba lifted his nose into the air, then drew back at the overwhelming scent "They're right underoooff!" The ground beneath them erupted in a cloud of rock and dirt, followed by a strong and sudden uprising of a grainy material. Before either of them could register what was happening, a loud buzzing filled the air cutting off all attempts at communication. The next thing Kiba knew he was being throw upward in a dizzying spin and tumbling every which way as a wave of the strange insects tore at him and carried his body with their rise.

Both he and Neji were thrown from the hole in a matter of seconds, sent flying through the air and crashing into the hard wasteland ground of the dry desert. "Not the way I would have chosen." Kiba rubbed his head as he sat up, watching the swarm of green and black pour out of the large crater "But were up here now."

"Damnit, why are these demons coming after us?" Neji stood to his feet, clinching his fist tightly as he watched the swarm reconnect it self in the sky and cast a dark shadow over them, "No matter where we go they seemed to come after us..."

The swarm of insects flattened out and spanned over them and about 100 more feet in diameter, then they began to swirl around a gaping vortex, pulling the two toward the center. "What the hell do we do now?" Kiba asked nervously, lifting his arm over his eyes to block the wind being thrown in his face as he body was drawn up.

"Fight." Neji drew both hands back, focusing his charka in to his fist until a visable white aura flowed from them.

"Onigijyu shinto no jutsu!" Kiba stretched his arms outward, glowing in a red energy, and clinched his hands into tight fist that made the energy push from his hands out of his knuckles in long claws that extended at least a foot outward. Right before he was about to be pulled in to the vortex he drew his fist back swiped at the insects, slicing through some of the demons and knocking away others in the flurry of attacks.

Neji's fist were overflowing with an excess of chakra that had been built up, "Koseichi Chudan" He drove his hands into whirlpool first, intruding explosive chakra in to the bodies of nearby insects and detonating Chakra already contained within them in a series of gunshot like combustions. Along with Kiba they were able to disrupt the center just in time and stop the whole vortex in a cascading effect. With out the pull to hold them at their current altitude they were sent falling back to the ground, with the demonic swarm chasing after them.

On landing both Kiba and Neji jumped backwards in opposite directions to avoid the incoming insects. "I don't have the" Kiba's voice was drowned out by increased buzzing sound of the erratically moving mass, and the insects movements became harmonized once again.

Kiba took the opportunity to get rejoin with Neji. "What are they doing?" he had to yell over the noise.

"That buzzing sound is created by their wings, so if it's getting louder they're must be moving their wings faster." Neji explained, drawing three kunais from holder and razing his other hand over them "Koseichi Chudan." The metal started to release a white smoke from blade, Charka. With targeted accuracy, Neji threw the blades in to the top, center and bottom of the mass, watching it dissipate from the eruption of flames but reform immediately .

The flames that covered a few areas were pushed outwards in a burst of hot air, sending Kiba and Neji sliding backward on contact but still steadily standing. The next shockwave, visible from the dust surrounding the dessert they were in, swept them of their feet, throwing Kiba through a dead tree and in to Neji. Then they were pulled to the left by the winds that started to rotate around the insects that were once again moving in to a whirlpool motion, reforming the same vortex.

This time they were pulled in, surrounded in sea of demons that clawed, griped and bit at them, not a good position to be in if said demons could eat through just about anything.

Neji started expelling Chakra at a rapid rate, rotating it around his body then expanding it as far has his limits could reach. '!' Unfortunately his Heavenly spin didn't have the effect it had last time, his attack was actually diminishing. 'No, what's happening?' Neji activated his Bakyugan again, watching the demon's Chakra carefully, they were like a vacuum, the same characteristic he saw in them every time he used his blood line, but this time they were actually _absorbing_ his chakra. The increased numbers were enough to over take the ability this time.

He had no choice but to disable the attack, and immediately he started to feel the insects biting and clawing at him again. Then he felt Kiba tackle him from out of nowhere and knock his body out of the swarm and relive him from the pain. "It didn't work this time." Neji said abruptly, looking down at himself, his arms covered in blood along with minor cuts just about everywhere else. "They're absorbing my Heavenly Spin."

Kiba helped him on his feet, out of breath from all of the struggling he'd had to do to escape himself. "They have to be at least twice as many as last time, we can't fight against that much."

"We just have to hold them off until they leave... " Neji had learned that after a curtain amount of time these monsters always left or moved on to something else, and the amount of time for each fight was longer then the previous one. That behavior was almost as confusing as their reason for coming after Kiba and Neji in the first place.

Kiba sighed, "I " Once again he was cut off by a strong burst of wind being generated the swarm, sending them flying backwards in it's wake and slamming into the ground a far distance off. "Ahhh, Damnit." Kiba growled as he pulled himself on to his feet, stretching both arms out to his side. "Double Gatsuuga!" Chakra drawn wind swirled in to his hands, that he threw forward with one large push, forming a two drill shaped blasts that tore into the swarm, ripping some apart, missing most. With this number it was at best ineffective.

Another bust of wind from the swarm swept across the ground, ripping apart the dry lands in an explosion like outburst and slamming into Neji and Kiba first, followed by a rain of dirt and rock. Neji flew back a great distance before his body hit the ground, even then he slid a few 100 feet, wearing a trail in the ground that grew deeper with each inch he traveled. Kiba landed next to him, only he'd stayed on his feet the whole time out some strange bit of luck and skill.

"It's strong..." Neji sat up, finding that his shirt had been ripped and burned off by the friction, leaving a large scare across his back. He looked up at Kiba...and immediately notice something different about him...he was growling, literally growling like a beast, and chakra was pouring off of him, only it was a different color then usual, black.

Kiba sniffed the air lightly, then flinched apprehensively, the smell was overwhelming causing his nose to turn red and burn. It looked like his sense of smelling was a little too acute. "Kiba." Neji picked himself up, looking over him carefully. "What's with you?"

"What?" Kiba looked over at him curiously, "What is it?" Then he looked down at himself, not seeing any particular change.

Neji shook his head and turned back to the swarm that was coming towards them 'Maybe...that bite acutely had done something to him.' Something he had to think about later, right now "Koseichi Chudan" he was building Chakra into his arms again, the insects were coming at him head on and this was the only jutsu that seemed to do anything against them. Kiba pulled his hands back, another Gatsuuga drawing in air with the black Chakra. Another in-human growl escaping from throat subconsciously.

Another burst of wind came from the swarm, but this time the insects covered the blast and moved on it's surface, seeking to close the gap between them. It was so quick that Neji only had time to lift his hands before the wave struck them both, pushing them back in an oppressive force of air current and demons. Most of which on the surface were exploding because of the Jutsu.

Kiba launched the Gatsuuga, then another, then another, he was throwing with ease, he didn't even have to charge them this time.

After a few more seconds the wind over took them and swept them up again, losing them in a rush of jet stream and hostile demons. "Kiba!" Neji called out, holding his hands across his face to prevent entry into his nose and mouth, which seemed to be the first thing they headed for.

"I got it." Kiba curled into a ball and tried to move as far away as he could, he was fairly curtain he knew what Neji was going to do. And just as he expected, Neji used his Heavenly spin to push Kiba from the current though he knew he was feeding the insects by doing so. But it worked and Kiba was freed, and Kiba was able to get hold of Neji pull him out before he was carried too far.

"Nothing's working against them." Kiba took a few steps back, watching the swarm regroup into it's regular mass. He closed one eye and wiped away the blood streaming down from his forehead, those insects may not have been big, but when they bit they went deep enough to cause a considerable amount of blood , especially when they swarmed like they did. Most of Kiba's body was bleeding. "They're too quick, It's too many for us to handle."

"Your right, I don't have techniques to fight this kind of enemy." Neji watched the swarm carefully, "They're playing with us...we may need to retreat."

Kiba shook his head "Wait, they're going back in to the hole..." he said, watching the insects slowly filter in to the crater where they'd come from. "You think that's where they keep coming from?"

"No." Neji headed to retrieve the books from where they lay scattered but still intact, that material really was durable, he didn't want to provoke an attack. "That couldn't be it, it's not the right type of environment...These books may help me figure their actions out."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"It got away?" Iruka looked around, determining how close they were to D.S.I HQ after a very...interesting mission. He'd been the only one in a fake path by the time the copy took form, Naruto had been chasing after Gaara. The end result was he had to blast himself out of a wall with much recoil, causing his appearance to be ruffled and scorched. He couldn't wait to take a shower. "Do you mean there's an _exact_ copy of you running around?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, and unfortunately it may be after you."

Iruka stopped, "I just thought of something, you may be the copy."

Kakashi laughed and put his arm around Iruka's shoulder, he seemed a bit more nervous now. "Come on, if I was the copy you would have known it by now."

Iruka laughed nervously along with him "Yeah...right." This only made Kakashi laugh harder, making Iruka shoot him a look and pull him away and walk faster. By the time Kakashi caught up with him again they were back at D.S.I.

Sasuke was sitting in a tree that sat just in front of the building, Konohamaru laying across his lap with his arms firmly around Sasuke's waist. "Sasuke?" Iruka looked up at him, "What are you two doing out here so early."

Sasuke looked down at Konohamaru, running his hand through the boy's hair softly, "Something attacked Konohamaru, something that couldn't be seen." Sasuke tilted his head back as he thought about it, "He said it kept calling out Reedamaru when it was coming after him, and it seems this wasn't the first time."

Iruka rubbed the back of his head, "Something invisible is lose inside...Any idea what it is?"

"It looked like chakra that had a human form when I saw it, Konohamaru told me when he saw the reflection in the mirror it looked human. Maybe a demon."

"Is it still inside?"

"It's gone now, but there are some damages left behind by the whole thing."

Iruka sighed, there's a copy of Kakashi (as of Iruka could handle two of them) running around, and now something after Konohamaru. On top of that Gaara couldn't stay awake and kept trying to kill Naruto in his sleep, and Neji and Kiba were being constantly attacked by a swarm of demons. Iruka couldn't help but think what strange thing would happen to him, he would soon find out.

Iruka sighed, "We better go check it out."

! - ! - !

It was 20 minutes after his other two teammates had returned when Naruto finally made it back, even Neji and Kiba, though barely, had made it before him. Gaara's gourd was strapped over his shoulder and looked strange because of his size, he was also carrying Gaara in his arms, who had fallen asleep again. Naruto really was worried now...

Sasuke and Konohamaru were still in the same place, Naruto looked over them. "Let me guess, something weird happened to you too?"

Sasuke just gave him a quick look and closed his eyes again, shifting his head slightly against the tree. "..." Naruto knew that was a defiant yes, but he didn't have time to think on it, he had to get back to research and hope that Neji found the books he'd been speaking of and that they could help.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Blood?" Kakashi knelt down by the stream of blood that covered the bathroom floor and sink, "Did all of this come from what ever attacked Konohamaru?"

"I hope so." Iruka stood over his shoulder looking at the wall that had been blown apart. "I just hope Konohamaru's alright, he must have been terrified. Is he even going to be able to come back inside anymore?"

"Whoa, this looks horrible."

Both of the men looked back to the source of the foreign voice to find none other then Jiraiya the legendary Ninja leaning against the wall, looking on curiously. "What happened here?"

"A demon problem." Kakashi said, "Most likely at least."

"Quite Ironic really." Jiraiya smiled as he looked around the halls, "Looks like S.D.I's doing good."

Iruka and Kakashi looked at each other, "Maybe we should just change our name." Iruka said.

"What? Did I get it wrong?...never mind. But anyway, you guys might have just single handedly saved Konoha." Jiraiya complemented.

"Huh?" Iruka rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment "Sorry, I guess I haven't been keeping up with it. The help never came did it?"

Jiraiya shook his head "Nope, The Leaf would have died off if it wasn't for you guys. Who'd have thought that One Jounin, a Chuunin, 3 genins and the Hokage's grandson could do all of this with out help."

"Well you helped too." Iruka said.

"Huh? I didn't do anything."

"You gave us our first clients, and you still help with the money." The money had to be shifted around a lot so that Konoha wouldn't be aware of where it came from. If Konoha had became aware then so would other villages. "So how's Konoha coming along, I haven't been there since the storm."

"It's coming along nicely, even business are starting to show up, their not doing well...but that's not the point." Jiraiya took one last look in to the bathroom and then just shrugged it off "I'm sorry I couldn't help more then, but I've been doing some cough extra work. But if you need my help just call me anytime."

! - ! - !

Upon entrance in the library he was met by Kiba, Akamaru at his heels, who was tending to his wounds. "Naruto, how did it go?"

"Horrible ." He sighed, "It was Gaara again, he have to find out was wrong with him really soon..."

"Getting worse huh?" Kiba laid his hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile "You'll figure out something, besides, we found those books Neji was talking about, it might help."

Naruto gave him a small nod, his face lighting slightly at the premise of new hope. He ran toward the back of the room as fast as he could, he didn't want to waste another second. After nearly falling on his stop, he found Neji in his study with 3 books open on his desk, 8 more lay piled at his feet. He was writing a few things down, and his Bakyugan was active for some reason. "Neji."

Neji looked up from his work, "Naruto, just the person I was waiting for. These books may help you, but there is a problem. Some of the text are in a demon script, I do have translation..." Translation that he'd gotten from his family's archive. "I can look it up for you but it's going to take some time, I have many other projects ahead of me. I just wanted to tell"

"Where can I start?"

"What?" Neji turned all the way around and looked at him fully, "You still want to do this? It's in another language, an in-human language."

Naruto shrugged, pulling off his jacket and tying it around his waist. He still had some of the deeper injuries from his fight with Gaara, though most of them had been healed when he unleashed the Nine-tail's chakra. "I don't care, just give me something to translate it with."

Neji couldn't help but think just how determined Naruto was. "I've already translated titles and cross referenced their indexes." Neji handed him a copy of the papers he'd written, containing the indexes of all 8 books, he was skilled enough to translate and transcribe quickly. Iruka had really picked his strong point when he assigned him this job.

"Thanks." Naruto looked over the paper, then knelt down and sorted through the books until he found the one that seemed the closest.

With Naruto's needs taken care of, he turned back to his own studies. First pulling out the concentration stone Lee was going to give to him, which made him wonder "Why didn't he give this too me...Lee wouldn't be the type not to follow through on something...he was too headstrong not to give it to me...even if I wasn't in a good mood." Come to think of it he was never very nice to Lee, the opposite in fact. "Why did Lee even bother to tell me about the safe, it wasn't as if we were friends...I didn't think we were..."

Neji flipped through the pages until he found two pictures, front and back, of the same stone. "Hmm...this is made of a demonic property, of course." He noticed something, the back of the stone had a 7 engraved one the back, Neji looked it over, there was no 7 on his. "Maybe..." He looked into the one drawers in the table and retrieved a brush, lightly dusting off the stone to reveal the number.

Another number in the combination, he had a 4 and a 7 so far, 2 down, 2 to go.

"Lee's 2000 years in the future, I guess I'll never know..." Neji put away the stone and closed the book on artifacts, then picked up the next one in the pile...Translating... 'It roughly translate to Demon Arts...' Jutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsus, worth a look.

! - ! - !

"Things are getting too out of hand." Iruka sighed, caring a stack of folders and files against his chest as he walked through the plains around D.S.I (Decidedly but unofficially S.D.I Now.) and Konoha. "I should be back there..." Things were a little too hectic back at headquarters, he had to take his work someplace else more peaceful. Then he could come back and help Naruto, then help Neji ( he'd taught Neji all of his referencing skills.), talk to Gaara (to keep him from leaving.) Then talk to Konohamaru about what happened, he should probably do that first, to see if he could track down what ever did this.

And bunch of paperwork on top of that, being a manager was not easy. It may even be harder then being a teacher. All of this after being awaken at 2 in the morning, it was 6 now.

He was too busy thinking that he hadn't noticed he was walking into a river until he tripped and fell face first...into a blank of sand? "Huh?" Iruka lifted himself up from the solid mass of sand that came between him in the water and back on to shore. "Gaara?"

"Are you ok?"

Iruka turned around and smiled, seeing Gaara standing there with his arms folded and that usual expression on his face. "Yeah, just thinking..." he paused for a moment. "You know, I'm very proud of you Gaara."

Gaara's face shifted a little, showing slight questioning. "Hm? For what?"

"You've come so far, you've proven that you aren't just some monster like everyone says. Your a person, and your worth saving...I'm just sorry I couldn't be there for you."

"What do you mean?"

"It must have been hard for you growing up, but even through years of that you can still became a great person."

"You ...think I'm..."

"Yeah...that's why I don't want you to leave." Iruka rubbed his head and turned away embarrassingly. "I know you don't want to hurt Naruto but stay at least a little longer, I'm trying to help Naruto figure out what's going on. And I'm worried about you, not just because of the...attempted murder...but what's happening to you. One day you might not wake up again, I don't want that to happen to you."

Gaara's questioning look became more visible, "You...really..."

"I have a lot of worked to do, but I want to talk to you latter." Iruka gave him a quick wave before heading off again, he knew this one spot farther off that would be great.

"Iruka..." Gaara just let out a deep breath and gave up on his train of thought, "Watch where your going this time."

"I will. Thanks again."

! - ! - !

It didn't take to long until Iruka reached a tree, far above the waterfall and a few yards away until it was barley in view. "Peace, finally." He sighed a breath of release as sat on the ground and leaned against the trunk of the tree, it was a large tree, a strong tree, one of the few that still stood. Which is why he liked this spot, though it did bring of memories since it was exact same tree he stood in when he went into the past and watched his father die. This same spot he was able to find peace in. Ironic really.

Pick up the first file he started the paperwork... not noticing something creeping up behind him. Something moving fast, something low enough to hide in the grass... it stopped about 10 feet away, pausing to see if it was really him, and then it sprung. "Ahhhhaa!" Iruka jumped, feeling something dig in to his leg.

He remembered this creature very clearly, this had been the fly larva that devoured a spider egg on one of his previous mission, causing it to become a leach like demon with large fangs. He also remembered it mounting itself on his chest and draining some of his blood, a pint at least. Well that blood had been a catalyst for another mutation. The large white fangs were smaller now, and it had taken a brownish red color, and it had eyes and a nose now. 2 sets of fins were on it's body in the place of arms and legs, it even had a tail now.

Iruka reached down to pull it off, but it was draining blood much more quickly then before making him dizzy and weak. His vision started to blur and double, his hand missed completely when he reached down to pull it off. "N...No...!Ehhaaaaa!"

A kunai came from nowhere and sliced into it's body, making it detach and pull away. In a blur of green and black a man landed in-between him and the creature, Kakashi. "Iruka, are you alright?"

Iruka nodded his head and looked at him, scrabbling to stand up in stumble of shaky ground and dizzying spinning. "Kakashi? Yeah..." Iruka fell back and against the tree and waited for his vision to refocused, the stillness was enough to calm the dizziness to a point where he could see his attacker through barly. It was different but defiantly the same one...

The creature scurried back, then jumped forward at a spot on the ground with Iruka's blood on it. This creature had tracked him down all the way from the Cloud country from his blood... Kakashi took a step back, placing a hand on Iruka's arm and pushing him abruptly, just as the creature jumped at the man. Iruka fell to the ground and the creature missed, but oddly enough didn't go for him again when it had the chance... it just laid there and curled into a ball.

Kakashi pulled Iruka on to his feet, both watching the creature act erratically...it was mutating..."Iruka...I think you blood is causing this."

Iruka clinched his leg, holding his hands over the two holes where it's teeth had been. "It sure dose like it."

He gasped and watched with his mouth wide as the creature grew. The body expanded, the fins on it's body growing in to arms and legs, the tail extending and widening. It's eyes divided in half, giving it two sets, one above the other. Then it opened it's mouth, the large fangs seemed to fit now, and let out startled roar. The round body took a more defiant shape, claws formed on it's newly grown hands and felt, even it's tail grew.

"Kakashi..." Iruka's grip on his leg loosened and he fell again, on the verge of passing out. He looked down at his leg, seeing that the outer edges of the bit marks were turning purple "...Poison."

Kakashi knelt down next to him, glancing over at the demon that rolled and flipped on to it's feet in a failing manner, it was human sized now and had a loosely human form. Those two sets of eyes glowing in a green light and the buds of horns on it's skull, "Ka..Iru...Iruk. Iruka." And it talked... but for some reason it ran away, maybe out of it because of the sudden mutation had it as confused as they were.

"It's gone now..." Kakashi said, placing his hand on the man's chest. "But it really likes you for some reason."

Iruka's eyes grew wide, and his mouth fell open. "Those clothes...they're...not the right color." Iruka lifted his hand weakly and pointed at the vest Kakashi wore, it was much duller, and his black shirt and pants were a shade of very dark gray but not quite black. "Your...the c-copy!..." Iruka's eyes fell closed, and his hand fell as he finally passed out from blood loss.

The doppelganger just starred down at Iruka, "He's...afraid of me...they're all going to be afraid of me...Iruka..." Kakashi dropped his head and sighed, scooping Iruka into his arms.

"What happened?"

Kakashi turned around, to see Gaara had finally made it up after hearing Iruka, "Yeah, a demon attacked, it ran away though."

"What about Iruka?"

"He'll be alright, after some rest. I got it, you can get back to training or whatever...what are you doing out here anyway."

"Getting my head strait."

Kakashi nodded. "Don't stay away too long, you might get ideas of leaving. Naruto would pout."

! - ! - !

"Sasuke..." Konohamaru called out sleepy.

"Yes?"

"You must be getting tired of saving me all the time... "

Sasuke smirked inwardly as he released the boy, allowing him to sit up and open his eyes. "No at all."

Konohamaru smiled back at him, "Thanks, I don't know what I would have done with out you." Konohamaru shifted so that his back was against Sasuke's, looking out over the unobstructed view of the sunrise...it reminded him of day he and Sasuke first kissed, the thought made him laugh, how nervous Sasuke was afterwords.

"What?"

"Nothing." Konohamaru laid his head back on to Sasuke's chest and starred outward. "You think that thing is going to come back for me..."

Sasuke wrapped his arm around Konohamaru's waist, offering a small comforting "Maybe..."

Konohamaru sighed, "I know it will..."

Both arms wrapped around the boy now "Konohamaru..." Sasuke lent down, resting his head on Konohamaru's shoulder "Don't worry about it so much, it's just a demon, demons can be beaten. That's what we do, remember." He whispered in a deep voice.

Konohamaru closed his eyes, letting himself sit loosely in Sasuke's embrace. "I don't even feel like I'm apart of it...I'm not strong enough to do much." He held his head down when he said this, letting out a small sigh.

"I already told you, you are important. And don't call yourself weak, or not."

"..."

"You have an incredible power that you just have to focus in on. Your not weak, and you are important to this team... your important to me."

Konohamaru opened his eyes again and glanced back, unable to believe that _Sasuke_ had just said something like that... "Really?"

"Don't ever doubt that."

Konohamaru grinned lightly, feeling himself falling asleep again. He didn't fight it this time, he felt like he was drifting deeper and deeper into the high waters, becoming less awake by the second. "Ok..."

! - ! - !


	14. Chapter 14: Music

Chapter 14: Music

"Hmm..." The Kakashi double looked a round the familiar reception area of D.S. I, S.D.I now, he knew everything there was to know about this place as if he'd been there from the start. He didn't remember the roof being gone and steel beams protruding from the top of the building. From what he could see another floor was currently being added.

With Iruka in his arms he walked into the hallway that lay behind that door, taking the familiar path towards the man's room.

"Kakashi."

The copy looked back, Kiba was standing there with an expression on his face that looked as he was searching for something "Hey, have you seen Gaara? Naruto wanted me to check up on him."

"He's somewhere around here, don't worry about him." Kakashi said calmly, continuing on his path to Iruka's room.

Kiba peeked over his shoulder "What happened to Iruka? Is he alright?"

"A Demon, but he'll be fine after some rest. So keep it down."

Kiba was being rather loud, "Oh sorry about that...What did it do to you?"

Kakashi froze, Kiba noticed something was different about him, so quickly "What do you mean?"

Kiba pointed to his shirt "Your clothes look really dull now, and you smell like a demon."

'!' Kiba had seen right through him so easily, were his clothes _that_ much of a give away? And did he smell _that_ much like a demon, he hadn't even realized it...the real Kakashi had said something about him being a demon. At this point he didn't even know what he was, on one had he thought he was Kakashi, but there was the distinct detail that was telling him he wasn't. The demonic powers were a dead give away that he wasn't human, no matter how human he felt.

If Kiba learned of it, he'd be afraid, then he would attack, then things would start on a downward spiral... "...Acid, the demon produced Acid in it's mouth. Probably why I smell like this...I think I need to change clothes."

"Oh, make sense." Kiba shrugged and turned around, "I'll leave you to it then, If Gaara's alright then I got a lot of funds so spend."

The copy let out a sigh of relief, hurrying into Iruka's room before anyone else could see him and ask questions. The room was so neat, clean, organized, Kakashi crossed the room to the bed in the corner, laying Iruka down gently. Kakashi looked down at himself "Change cloths...right." With that thought, Kakashi left Iruka alone and headed for the real Kakashi's room just across the hall.

This room wasn't as neat as Iruka's but it was enough to be considered clean no matter how disorganized it was. He felt an inane sense of comfort here, home. Kakashi stripped himself of the vest, letting it fall to the ground behind him. He began to pull off the slightly gray shirt as he walked over to the dresser and started riffling through it for something acceptable to ware, preferably similar to what he had on. "Oh yeah...don't need these anymore." Kakashi looked down at his pants, quickly unbuttoning them and kicking them off.

This was the first time he got a full look at himself, how exactly identical he was. Every cut and scare Kakashi had ever received was visible and present, every detail of the man's body he had. He was starting to get a loathing for the man. Something to think about latter, now he just had to get dressed, he couldn't go around completely naked. As funny as that might be. He was in luck through, there was another set of the Jounin uniform here among other things, which the doppelganger quickly put on. He seemed satisfied with it, it wasn't dull like his last pair, these were perfect. And now so was he.

"You can't be serious."

The fake Kakashi flinched at the sound as he pulled up his mask, slowly turning around to see the real Kakashi standing in the doorway. Not looking at all happy. "You!" The doppelganger pointed an accusing finger at him "I thought I told you to stay away."

"What did you do to Iruka!"

"What the hell! I didn't do anything to him, a demon"

"A demon like you." Kakashi ran at the fake, ramming him to the ground and pulling a Kunai from his holder.

The doppelganger caught his hand before Kakashi could stab him, then he lifted his opposite arm in similar motion. In an instant Kakashi was mirrored with the doppelganger holding a Kunai that appeared out of nowhere. "What the" Kakashi fell backwards as the blade was drove into his shoulder. He rolled to the side and jumped backwards on to his feet. "How can you even dispute that your real when you just keep copying me?"

"If I wasn't real I wouldn't be standing here." The doppelganger threw the Kunai in his hand at Kakashi, who caught it and tossed it back along with the other one he already. Both of them plunged into both sides of the doppelganger's stomach, followed by a flow of blood. "And I didn't hurt Iruka!"

"The hell you didn't." Kakashi stomped down on to him, but the copy caught his foot and swept his other leg off the ground with his fist. Kakashi fell backwards, and as soon as he hit the ground the doppelganger sprang on top of him another knife in hand plunging down on his chest. Kakashi blocked with a Kunai of his own, both clashing together in a spray of sparks and scraped metal, pushing upward while the copy pushed down on him. Both completely equal in strength.

But just as it seemed the copy was overpowering him, the real Kakashi went up in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind an explosive tag. 'What!' It exploded in an even larger cloud of flames and smoke that engulfed the demon whole.

The real Kakashi stood behind, against the wall waiting anxiously 'Did it...work?' He waited as the smoke cleared away...The doppelganger was still there...only it was oddly different, except for the clothing the copy was still a mirror of Kakashi only in a dull and bland black and white devoid of any color

"Wha-what the..." The doppelganger looked down at his hands with eyes wide, a strange pulsing was pounding in his ears. But it died down as his body slowly but surely returned to normal. he seemed to be in shock, surprised and unexpectant of what had just happened. "I-I..." The doppelganger looked up at Kakashi, who seemed to be just as surprised as he was, and then disappeared in a blur of speed.

"He...left?"

! - ! - !

Neji read over the book intently with his Bakyugan, the book of demon arts changed when he read it with his blood line enabled. The text was initially the same, but details started to become different until whole meanings changed, the part visible with the Bakyugan was decidedly the true vision of the text. It made him wonder how something like this could be written, where the pages held invisible words. And who or what wrote it so that it only could be seen with the Bakyugan?

Neji was in his study now, a scroll on one side of the desk and the demon book on the other along with a messy disarray of notes and translation templates. Neji was copying key passages down in their entirety in the scrolls, mainly the jutsu since that was what this book mainly was. Things he'd have to learn later.

The next thing he noticed was that everything in each book connected to something in another, all of them seemed to be one large demon index holding techniques, Jutsus, detailed information but each book held one subject predominately. But the way the book was written made it hard to cross reference anything they were researching unless they read each book twice. It was also painfully vague unless the person had more specific information to search with, something none of them had.

"Huh?" Neji looked closely down at the pages of the book above the one of demon arts, he'd seen a reference to insects in a jutsu as the creator...when he cheeked it out in third book of the volume the first insect type he'd come across was amazingly similar to the insects he and Kiba had been encountering lately... "Translates to...Ju Kama Bugs..." He had a name... All he had to do was translate farther.

Ju Kama bugs, named because they fed primarily on JU KAMA Bakemonoboku Ganseki. Said to have numbers in the thousands, each member of the species are apart of one hive. Able to live for thousands of years from a strictly Bakemonoboku Ganseki diet, the whole swarm feeds once every 500 or so years and then goes back to it's hive. That's what it said roughly translated. "That doesn't explain why it's after us..." Neji looked up from the books and rubbed his head lightly, using his Bakyugan in this way for this long was giving him a headache. "The words Bakemonoboku Ganseki kept coming up...maybe if I look that up..."

Neji picked up a third book in from volume, roughly a translated one of items or artifacts. Sitting the book on top of the other two he started flipping through the pages that he'd referenced...JU KAMA Bakemonoboku Ganseki, an acorn from the Bakemonoboku in the form of a stone. The Bakemonoboku was a rare tree and the Bakemonoboku Ganseki held high levels of concentrated nutrients needed for the tree to grow after planting. Nutrients include chakra, ki, and arashi metsubushi. 'If that was the nutrients inside of it needed to for the acorn to become a sapling, I wonder what was in the full grown tree.'

With a diet like that then it was no wonder the Ju Kama bugs could live thousands of years and go for long periods of time with out eating. 'What about the tree?' The Bakemonoboku are rare because of the Ju Kama bugs that feed on their seeds have wiped them all out, it has large amounts of the highly concentrated nutrients that it gives to it's seeds. The tree has enrichment and healing properties...the rest didn't translate 'I need new translation transcripts.'

But why were the Ju Kama bugs after them, he'd remember seeing a Bakemonoboku sitting around though he knew he'd never seen one before from how it was described he was sure it would be distinct.

! - ! - !

"Naruto?" Neji emerged from his study with a horrible migraine, it wasn't an issue of using all of his charka on the Bakyugan it was how long he could stand it. 3 hours was his official limit. "Naruto?" Neji looked into the fourth row, following the trail of discarded books until he reached the orange clad blond.

Naruto was sitting on the ground with his back against one of the book shelves, still reading the same demon book Neji had given him with the translations scattered around him among other sheets with notes written in Naruto's sloppy hand writing. "Naruto, are you alright?" Neji asked "You haven't stepped out of this row since your last mission. And your messing up my library."

Naruto looked up "Sorry."

Neji knelt down next to Naruto and picked up some of his notes... "I'm impressed, someone like you has done so much hard work." Neji ran his finger over the messy script as he read, decoding Naruto may have actually been harder then the demon language. "You translated this part wrong."

"What?" Naruto leaned to the side so that the paper came into his view.

"Change these 5 letters...switch this word...here, now it's fixed."

"Great, now I only have too check out 200 possible things." Naruto sighed.

Neji looked over the boy going back to work, he still looked like hell... "Naruto, your getting punchy. Go get something to eat and some sleep and you can pick up where you left off later."

Naruto shook his head, "I can't right now." He said, looking back and fourth between the book and the translations.

Neji gave him another over look...then he looked away. "Your not getting anything done this way, go."

"I can't"

"You don't have a choice, go."

Naruto looked up at him questioningly "Are you...kicking me out?"

"Yes." Neji said plainly "Food, sleep, now." Before Naruto could get another word in, Neji picked him up by his jacket collar and started dragging him towards the door "Your too messy anyway, I hate my things being in disarray."

"Neji!" Naruto struggled furiously but by the time he stared putting up a decent fight he was already flying out of the door, and then having it shut in his face.

! - ! - !

"..." This wasn't working, his concentration was shot and he knew it... Gaara opened his eyes to the view of blue waters rushing down on to his head and shoulders from the waterfall he was sitting under. The same waterfall. It was hard enough to concentrate here in the first place, but he found it impossible now, to many things were going through his head.

Everyone was telling him not to leave...but it was getting harder and harder to listen. He was putting all of them in danger... he was putting _him_ in danger, and he'd kill himself before he ever did that again... Just stop thinking about it, for now just stop thinking... Gaara sighed and tilted his head back, letting the water run over his face and through his hair, then he looked down over the side of the rock he was sitting on. This was the first time he ever really paid attention to his reflection, those dark lines under his eyes that had been fading were starting to return...

He just sat there...alone... it was amazing what things started running through his mind. Most of which he didn't care to remember or think about and forced him to try and clear his mind again. But one thing did stick out, one thing that he remembered oddly well...it was about when he left for Konoha to find Naruto. He started thinking about things people did and he told himself that he'd try out music, he also said that he would try making some himself.

! - ! - !

_After a few minutes of mindless running, his mind started to think again on it's own. He couldn't stop it, so he just gave in. He tried to think of something other then what he had been thinking of since yesterday. Maybe he could do something that didn't result in pain on himself and/or others._

_Music maybe. There isn't a person that doesn't like some type of music. All he had to do was find that type. Or better yet he could learn how to play an instrument, something like that was time consuming and took practice and hard work. It would take years to master. It was perfect. And if he mastered one instrument, he could start learning another. He could even learn to sing…_

_The thought of that was laughable, in fact it almost made him laugh. The thought of himself singing was hilarious…Well, apparently mindless thinking had it's upsides, who would have thought._

_Music…that seemed realistic, he would have to try it one day. But he decidedly first would have to find something he liked. That would involve him actually listening to it first, he never actual listened to any music in his life. Sure he had the chance, but he didn't bother with something that seemed trivial and._

! - ! - !

...Should he? Why would he? What was the point of something so mundane, time could be better spent then doing things like that...what things? Were things like listening music just done to pass time? Other things could be done to pass time, like games, from what he had seen they were a lot more enjoyable then listening to a series of sounds and noises ...He'd never actually been involved in a game so he didn't know how true that statement was.

Gaara picked himself up, jumping off of the vacant stone and back on to the bank of the river. Standing up strait and strapping his gourd back on to his back, he started on his slow trail to Konoha. Training was obviously in impossibility today, and his mind kept coming back to that thought of music. If doing what he was about to do would help his concentration then the sooner he could get this stupid curiosity out of him the better.

! - ! - !

Iruka's eyes shot open and he sprang upward from his bed. His head shifted around frantically, his eyes scanning his current surroundings. "How...what happened?" Iruka rubbed his head, happy to see that the dizziness he'd experienced before passing out was gone. But so was the copy...and he was back in his room.

Iruka pulled himself out of bed, moving curiously to the doorway with careful steps. He opened the door and walked out into the hallway 'I really am back...but how? Did he...bring me here?' Iruka thought, still looking around carefully, 'Or did someone rescue me?' Iruka closed the door behind him and leaned against it, he wasn't dizzy but he was weak from being poisoned.

The bite hadn't been in contact long enough to give him too much of the venom so not much happened but the weakening effect. "...I'm confused...where's Kakashi?" Iruka pushed himself off the door and slowly began to walk down the hall in his search for answers, but he noticed something... Naruto, just ahead of him, was walking in a dead pan manner to his room. "Naruto?"

Naruto turned and looked at him, he had deep bags under his eyes from sleep deprivation for who knows how long and he looked weaker then Iruka was from no food at all. No energy, none what so ever, completely un Naruto like. "Iruka? Huh?"

"Naruto, what's wrong with you?" Iruka forgot his current problem at the sight of Naruto, quite frankly he looked like hell.

"Neji kicked me out." He said bitterly, pounding his head against the wall, "I don't need this right now..."

"Naruto, have you seen..." Iruka paused, looking over Naruto's face carefully...He was so... "You look like hell...you _need_ a break anyway, how about we go out for some ramen?" He could figure out what happened latter, he wasn't dead and he was relatively alright. Besides, Naruto needed somebody to help him, he couldn't keep going like he did. And Iruka was just the push he needed to get him back on track.

"Really?" Naruto stopped pounding his head and looked up.

! - ! - !

Gaara almost felt silly walking into this store, then he realized this wasn't the first time in fact now that he thought about it he felt this way many times before. Only then he hadn't realized it, now he was keenly aware of his emotions. The downside of being humanized by Naruto, damned human emotions, they were like hell nowadays. But it was easy enough to push it back to the point where it was no longer there.

He'd stopped back at SDI and left his gourd in the lobby, it was easier to move with out it. He opened the glass door and walked inside of the Konoha Record Store and stared at the mounds and mounds of CD's that were everywhere in a sea of colors and square shapes. "..." The task ahead of him seemed tedious, something annoying that he'd rather not do, sampling all of this music just to see what it was like and get rid of this curiosity. His concentration was at stake, he'd never get that nagging thought out of is head if he didn't.

So after giving a considerable amount of money to the owner, and being allowed a CD player and permission listen to anything he wanted to _without_ being disturbed, Gaara went to work...deciding to chose a few out of the labeled genres before getting to details. So he ended up with 10 cds to start with.

"What's the difference between all of these...it's all just sounds."

Gaara found a rather secluded place in the very back corner of the store and picked up the first CD...flipping it around and looking over each inch, first genre "Country?" whatever this was. He opened it, or at least he tried to open it, but he found the thin layer of plastic covering it that surprisingly hard to get through. He couldn't grip it, his nails didn't seem to be effective, he even tried scraping the bottom over the edge of table. "I've never seen this type of plastic before...government issue? Possibly these CDs need to be kept fresh...?"

Finally Gaara got frustrated in his attempt to open it manually and just tore it open with his sand. Already thoroughly annoyed, Gaara nearly cracked the CD putting it place, then shoved the headphones over his unruly red hair and pressed play...

! - ! - !

"A demon is after you?" Kisame inquired curiously "I guess it's really happening." He laid back against the soft grass along the familiar rolling planes out side of Konoha, a completely secluded area though it was thousands of acres wide. He'd taken this path on his way to the Mist village in his attempted rescue of Itachi from Akatsuki as ironic as it was. It didn't go so well especially since Konohamaru was with him, he nearly ended up dead and came inhumanly close. He was sure he'd crossed that line a few times during that time.

"Yeah." Konohamaru sighed, sitting down next to him with a loud thud. After scrubbing the blood off of him and changing cloths, into some of Sasuke's old ones no less, he'd headed off to find Itachi and Kisame. Sasuke wasn't all that happy with his choice to leave, he wanted him to stay so he could protect him, so that he could make sure he was _really_ alright. Sure Sasuke would be a little mad but he was always so cute when he was like that, he always wondered around mindlessly when he was worried.

"So is that all you came here to tell us?" Kisame asked, "We could have figured that one out by ourselves." He was still a little tired and easily aggravated, but that wasn't saying much because he always had little patience. He glanced up at Itachi who was sitting behind him, the same stoic expression he always carried.

"No..." Konohamaru looked directly at Kisame when he said this. "It called me Reedamaru."

That seemed to catch their attention, Kisame sat up "What?"

"Yeah, It attacked me again this morning..." Konohamaru started to divulge into the details of his last encounter with the mysterious demon, Kisame seemed more concerned about Konohamaru, Itachi was thinking more about this demon... "That's what happened..."

"Damn." Kisame looked a little uneasy after hearing this, to think something was actually after the boy, something this dangerous. Something he couldn't protect him from, Kisame remembered the last encounter when Konohamaru was trapped in a place...that didn't exist, and attacked by demon foxes...that also didn't exist. The injuries from the whole thing were real enough though, Konohamaru still had scares.

Itachi looked at Kisame, his eyes doing the talking instead of his mouth. Kisame understood, they weren't sure that they wanted to tell Konohamaru that Reedamaru was actually his father. The same father who tired to kill him and who they killed in turn. "Konohamaru, this isn't a demon."

"Huh?" Konohamaru looked up questioningly, "Then what is it?"

Itachi hadn't gotten that far, all he knew was that this didn't have the characteristics of a demon. Not even the poltergeist type. This was something completely different, and it had a grudge against Reedamaru that it planed to avenge through his son. "I'm not sure."

"..." Konohamaru dropped his head, he was really scared now... "What am I suppose to do? I...don't know if I can go back...it's going to keep trying until it kills me." Konohamaru knew that much, the attacks on him had been getting substantially worse. First it attacked him in his sleep, which had been painful, then he was attacked on a mission, which had nearly killed him if not for Itachi and Kisame's intervention. And the most recent that had served to nearly scare him to death, literally, he now knew how that was possible.

Kisame pushed himself up until he was standing, then drew his sword from his back and leaned on it. "Don't run from it, that's what it wants." Kisame said firmly, "You have to go back and fight it."

"Fight it?" Konohamaru let his head hang lower, "How can you fight something like this."

"Come on, you haven't even tried." Kisame said. "All those times, why didn't you?"

Konohamaru turned away, but before he could even notice his action Kisame demanded that he look him in the eye and give him an answer. "...I...was scared, but even if I was, there was nothing I could do to stop it anyway."

Kisame snorted and rolled his eyes, Konohamaru was Konohamaru after all...Kisame pushed his Samhada into the ground just deep enough for it to stand on it's own, then he sat down next to Konohamaru. "You want to know the trick to getting over fear?" Kisame asked.

Konohamaru looked up at him intently and nodded anxiously "Yeah."

"You do what your afraid of and get the courage to do it afterwords."

"What?" Konohamaru's face strained in to a confused expression, "That doesn't make any sense. It should be the other way around"

"Should be shouldn't it, Life's a bitch huh?" Kisame smirked, showing off his shark tooth like canines. "So your going to have to fight it sooner or later."

There was no way out of this, even if he didn't want to Kisame would make him face this anyway. "Guys help me? Tell me how am I suppose to fight this thing? What can I fight it with?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"Aww man...you gotta help me out. Please Boss?"

"Well if your going to wine about it, I'll see if I can get you some weapons that might help you..." Kisame was a weapons expert, when he made Sahamada he was skilled enough to give it Chakra removal abilities. And that shaving instead of cutting property didn't happen on it's own. He could probably make something that worked against sprits "Hell, I'll make you some."

"Really!" Konohamaru's face brightened considerably "Can you train me too?"

Itachi glanced over at Kisame, who just shrugged and nodded.

! - ! - !

Music... how could an assortment of organized sounds and voices be so...interesting, enjoyable actually. As confusing as it was music seemed to invoke some type of favorable reaction in his mind. He'd sorted almost completely though the things he didn't like and what he did, a lot of it he didn't like, but there was almost an equal amount that he did.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been here, 3 hours at the least. He wasn't opposed to sitting in this corner longer and continuing to listen, but on the other hand he didn't want to, he'd be more comfortable in his room. So with a decision reached he pulled the headphones down around his neck and stood up, leaving the CD's he didn't want and taking the ones he did, along with a few others he picked up randomly.

! - ! - !

It didn't take long, in fact it happened surprisingly fast. Soon after Iruka had treated Naruto to some ramen and they'd returned, Naruto went strait to sleep despite his tries not to. Iruka sat quietly in Naruto room, resting on the boy's bed with his back against the wall and his arms resting lazily behind his head.

Naruto was laying across him, his head resting in Iruka's lap. He finally looked peaceful, Iruka was thankful for that. When he woke up Iruka was gong to make sure he helped him so he didn't starve an exert himself like this again. The man couldn't help but muse on how amazing Naruto's determination was. Iruka smiled and let one hand come to rest on the boy's head "You really did it this time Naruto, I guess you really do want to worry me to death."

Naruto grumbled and shifted in his sleep "...Iruka...I'm sorry..."

He was awake? No, he was barley conscious. Iruka ran his fingers messagingly through the boy's hair in a comforting manner. "Why are you sorry? There's nothing to apologize for."

"Uh-huh." Naruto rolled over sleepily so that his face was pressed into his stomach. "I was...I made you worry, and a disappointed you a lot."

"Is that how you really felt?" Iruka asked questioningly, but kept his voice low "You don't have to worry about that."

"I..."

"Go back to sleep, you can't work for 2 days strait with out a break at least."

! - ! - !

This room was bare, nothing but a bed and a single dresser. That was it, this place was completely devoid of decoration, of anything special, of self, of soul. It was just cold, distant lonely. Not even a picture. Gaara didn't seem to think anything of it, nor did it mind or notice. That impersonal emptiness was now filled with something of Gaara's personality, the boy dumped the 29 CDs in to a scattered pile on the ground. Then he set his Gourd, which he'd retrieved from the lobby, in the corner.

He was crossing the room towards his bed when he stopped halfway on the hardwood floor, deciding it was better just to sit on the ground near the CD then to carry them all over that way. He crossed his legs, slid the headphones over his ears and picked up the first CD out of the pile he hadn't listened to yet. What genre was this? What the hell was R&B? Time to find out.

! - ! - !

After an hour or so, Gaara had somehow changed from sitting upright to laying in a disorganized heap on the ground surrounded by a disorganized heap of cases. With his eyes closed, he reached down blindly to the CD player on his stomach and pulled out the current CD, then tossed it out an open window as he'd done with 2 others. Some things he didn't like.

So far he'd gone through at least one thing from every genre, and he'd liked at least one artist from each. And their were many more to go. At the moment he realized that only through the quiet pause of changing CDs could he noticed a certain things, "You should consider announcing your presence in some way when you enter a room." Gaara said still without opening his eyes, he already knew it was Sasuke.

Sasuke looked down on Gaara from the bed, "You look like you've been busy."

"You could say that." Gaara reached to his right, his hand landing on a deliberately placed Kunai and holding it up to an already lifted CD case, slicing thinly through the plastic and then returning the blade to it's spot as the covering fell off. He started to think that a plastic this hard to open could be put to other uses "Konohamaru?"

"He ran off some place." Sasuke said plainly, which was why he was here wandering around like this.

Gaara inserted the CD and pressed play, what genre was this? Gaara opened his eyes and glanced at the case, Rap? What the hell is this? Once again it was time to find out.

Sasuke still watched him, if this wasn't an odd sight then he didn't know what was. Even doing something so uncharacteristic, the way Gaara laid in an uncharacteristic manner so characteristically still and solemn. Even doing this he still managed to make it seem Gaara-ish.

With a shrug he left Gaara's room... Back to wondering.

! - ! - !

It was strange how music effected a person, some music made him feel saddened, other made him want to move around, at most it made him want to tap his finger to said beat. He wasn't even going to think about what some of the other songs did to him. Gaara pressed stop, he'd gone through this CD already, he didn't like this particular song so it was better to go on to something new.

Gaara opened his eyes to find another CD, but he found himself looking up into large blue eyes. "Hi." Naruto yawned sleepily, "What cha doing?"

Gaara pushed the headphones down off his head, "Listening to music." He said, looking cautiously at Naruto.

Naruto sat down next to him. "Can I hear?"

"Um...sure." Gaara handed him the headphones and Naruto carefully put them on.

"Is this...your first time listening to music?"

"Basically."

Naruto looked around at all of the CDs scattered around, he figured the ones in opened cases were the ones he liked and the small pieces of broken ones that had missed the windows were the ones he didn't. "So what's your favorite song?"

Gaara thought about it as he heard the headphones blaring from above around Naruto's ears, "Too many to choose...Are you alright?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, just taking a break. What about you?"

"Fine."

Naruto lent downward and gave Gaara a kiss. "Make sure you tell me when you finally do pick a favorite song."

"Alright."

"Promise?"

"..."

"...I better get back to work then..."

! - ! - !


	15. Chapter 15: Gaara's Nightmare

Chapter 15: Gaara's Nightmare

Sasuke sat up with a small yawn, shaking his head lightly to wake himself up completely. He had a habit for waking up early, usually before sunrise. He glanced over at Konohamaru who was sleeping next to him, the boy mumbled incoherently and pulled his arms away which had been latched on to Sasuke during sleep. Konohamaru never really ever got up early, it was hard to say when Konohamaru got up since it was so erratic.

Sasuke climbed out of the opposite side of the bed with nothing on but a pair of boxers, a chill prompted him that he'd better get dressed before doing anything else. So he retrieved a pair of clothing and walked out of his room, usually he'd be coming up from the basement, but he wasn't sure Konohamaru was ready to go back down. It was warmer there though...

Sasuke proceed outside for his usual session of training, noticing that the bathroom was halfway fixed on his way out.

It was just before dawn, leaving barely any light outside, not that it mattered to Sasuke. Light was never really a-- "What...?" Ok, this was different. Upon leaving the front door he found himself one step away from stepping into a canyon...a huge canyon. All around he could see other islands of desolate earth protruding from the seemingly endless abyss, some parts even held water in them... "What the hell is going on!"

His mind immediately thought back to when Naruto and Gaara were first experimenting in time travel, and it ended up Konoha being destroyed, twice. "No...they couldn't have...the wouldn't have, Gaara and Naruto haven't spoken to each other in days...and Gaara wouldn't do something this stupid." If that wasn't it, what could it... Sasuke stepped back in to the building...only to almost fall again because it was now gone...and the small patch of ground under him was crumbling. "This can't be real!"

Sasuke froze...and only then when he stopped thinking he realized that he felt something odd, almost as if he was in a dream. It was dream! One that he couldn't seem to wake up from...

! - ! - !

Sasuke yelled loudly and forced his eyes open, only to find he was looking directly at another eye...a very strange creature was on it's hands and knees directly on top of him, holding him down. It had a human form, a human form that looked exactly like his father, except for a few very large differences. It's eyes were glowing red with level 3 Sharingan, and there was another larger eye...on each one of it's shoulders, one pair directly under each elbow. One pair in each palm, one on the chest and back, and one under each knee, all of them glowing with Sharingan. "What the hell is this!"

Konohamaru shifted in the bed next to him... "Sasuke, what's with all the yelling--AAHhhh!" The boy nearly fell off the bed at the sight of the strange creature that was holding Sasuke down..."Sasuke!" Konohamaru jumped to his feet and punched the creature in the side of it's head , knocking it off of Sasuke and to the ground on the side of the bed.

Sasuke rolled over and climbed off of the other side of the bed next to Konohamaru. "Sasuke, what is that thing!"

"I-It..." Sasuke just watched the demon stand to it's feet as if in shock, what ever this thing was it was, it had Sharingan eyes, lots of them, and the image of his father. "Those eyes..."

"Uchiha."

"It talks too!" Konohamaru flinched at the sound of it's voice, it sounded exactly like Sasuke's father, a voice that bore a small resemblance to Sasuke's.

Sasuke grunted and ran at the demon, throwing a punch at the eye in it's chest...only to have it go right through, and then disappear..."What!"

! - ! - !

"AHHH!" Naruto jumped, dropping the books in this hand and turned around.

"Did I scare you?" Gaara looked around the library, it seemed to be larger the previous visit each time he came.

"Oh, not really, I heard you come in." Naruto rubbed the back of his and smiled. "So, are you ok?"

"Fine, I just..." Gaara's voice started to trail off, and his eye lids started to drop, before he knew it he was falling face first toward the ground.

"Gaara!" Naruto ran forward and caught the boy, just as he thought... "Gaara..." He sighed and eased the taller body down to the ground and sat him against the bookshelves. "Come on Gaara, I've got 300 leads left, it may sound bad but I had 500 before...Just hold on..."

! - ! -!

"!" Gaara flinched, blocking his face with his arms as he came face to face with the ground, slamming into it from out of nowhere... 'What?' Gaara grunted as he opened his eyes and pushed himself off of his stomach, one minute he was talking to Naruto, the next he was... in the basement, he was in Konohamaru's shrine. Everything was normal, except for the fact he didn't know how he got here. 'I must be asleep again...Damn.'

He didn't like this, bad things happened when he fell asleep like this, bad things happened to him... Gaara climbed to his feet, looking around at the flames that gave a patchy source of light. He wasn't sure how he got here, but all he had to do was go back upstairs,... Gaara repeated that to himself as he walked confidently toward the other side of the large room...

_Sheeekelop, Sheeekelop, Sheekelop _

"?" Gaara heard a distinct sound, that sounded similar to a mildly soft object being cut through. He proceed with a bit of curiosity that heightened his pace, he moved quickly, straining his eyes just ahead to see the source...There was a chair...and a table...and someone sitting there, someone unfamiliar. "Who are you?" Gaara asked bluntly, peering over the unresponsive form's shoulder.

This strange man wearing a Konoha hunter nin uniform, was holding a Kunai to his elbow and was halfway through cutting his arm off. Blood was flooding over the table top and streaming down over the side. 'What-What is this!' Gaara's eyes widened and he drew back in surprise, the man turned around, his face clawed with bloody scares with no eyes. "Aruggaaaa!"

In the blink of an eye the man was gone, leaving behind the table, the blood, and the severed arm. "What...what is this..." With another blink of an eye, the table, and everything that was on it disappeared as if it had never been there...and he wasn't asleep anymore. He was actually standing in the basement now, not just asleep in the library dreaming "..."

! - ! - !

"What is it Iruka?" Naruto walked into the lobby where Iruka was currently working. Busy at random things, like more paperwork Naruto noticed, leaning against the desk, laying his head in his arms.

"Where's Gaara?" He asked

Naruto dropped his head "He fell asleep, so I took him to his room."

"Naruto, I know you want to save Gaara." Iruka pushed away the stack of papers he was working on to the side and leaned forward so that he was face to face with Naruto, "But you can't keep doing this to yourself."

"I'm fine Iruka."

"No your not, you haven't eaten or slept in 3 days." Iruka gave him a stern and chastising look "Go get some rest."

"Come on Iruka, I can't do that right now." Naruto wined. "Gaara's getting worse, he's falling asleep every 2 hours! Soon he wont eve--"

"I know your worried about him and you want to help..." Iruka's voice trailed off and he looked away. "You should stop."

"Stop! What! Why the hell would I do that!" Naruto shouted.

"I mean just take it easy, you can't keep going like this and your little help to him when you can't even concentrate..." Iruka sighed "I wish I could have helped you more but things are getting hectic around here, A demon attacked Sasuke this morning even, he's with Neji now... Jiraiya and I think we're breeding animosity with the demons, we're being attacked directly now."

"You mean... the demons are _after us_?" Naruto looked up questioningly "Really?"

"Yeah." Iruka nodded "Things are going to get a lot busier around here, you have to be on guard. But you can't even protect yourself in this condition, how can you help Gaara?"

Kiba walked through the front door "Naruto, we need to talk now." he leaned against the counter next to Naruto, resting his head in his hand. "I know your trying to save Gaara, but your killing our funds."

"Huh?"

"Look at these bills, what the hell are you buying that cost thousands each?"

Naruto laughed nervously "I was testing out some stuff, and the stuff I needed for it were really rare."

Kiba sighed and dropped his head on the desk "Come on, there is a thing called a budget and your over yours by a couple million."

"I'm trying ok." Naruto said "I'm trying to do something really big here...I'm trying to find out what's wrong with Gaara, and I'm not going to stop until I do."

"Your department, your call." Kiba said with a shrug "But ease it with spending, leave some for Konoha."

! - ! - !

"Hmm..." Gaara looked through the rows of books in the library, searching for Neji or at least Naruto, he needed some help with this, he needed an explanation. But all he found was Naruto's notes scattered around in an unreadable script along with open books on the ground. 'Whatever your working on Naruto...hurry.' Gaara himself had only experienced fear once, and that was in his fight with Naruto. He feared for his life then but mildly. Now he was feeling fear on an entirely different level, he was scared for himself, scared for what was going to happen to him, for where he was slipping into when he slept, for Naruto and for what he might do to him.

He needed help. And if not for his own sake, for Naruto's. It seemed that each and every time he fell asleep that he attacked the boy, not just sometimes like before.

A shadow streamed along the wall behind him with the sound and feel rushing wind, Gaara glanced back though already to late to see what he'd just felt. "?" With out warning the lights blacked out, leaving Gaara alone in the dark..."What's going on around here..." Gaara said to himself, looking up at the long florescent light above him that stared flickering, then turned off again, then the one in front of it flickered and turned off, the next and the next, trailing all the way to the door.

"This can't be serous. You must be done cutting your arm off in the basement." Gaara's eye's narrowed and he folded his arms. "I am not going to follow some damn lights." He called out to what ever was causing this, was he asleep again? Did he ever wake up? He had to have, because when he fell into the basement he felt it, and had the bruise to prove it. Now he was just standing there, in the dark...another sound floating through the air.

It was the sound...of someone crying, sobbing lightly, and it was coming from the direction of the door. "Doesn't look like I have a choice... Fine." Gaara snorted annoyedly, walking slowly and cautiously down the shrouded path...At the very end of the row he could see something, a person crouching with their back turned, a woman.

She looked over her shoulder and reviled her face, half of her mouth and right cheek looked as if it had been sliced off and she was soaked in blood. Even worse yet, she had no arms. The woman stood up completely, blood streaming from her half severed mouth over her shoulder and down to the ground "Hold me...hold me please."

Gaara winced and steeped back with his eyes wide, she started walking towards him "It's coming..." She started running forward at Gaara, but as soon as she should have touched him the woman disappeared, just like the man in the basement.

Gaara gasped, his breath caught in his throat. He looked behind him from both sides, only finding himself alone in the dark still. Now he was starting become unnerved.

! - ! - !

Kakashi wiped the sweat from his forehead as he came through the back door, stripping himself of his weapons in a heap on the ground near the exit. He'd just taken on a very time consuming mission, one in which he had to leave at sun set when he received the mission, take out the demon and finally return at sunrise.

He went by himself since he'd heard rumors of a demon that sounded similar to the copy he was perusing. His attempt to protect Iruka, who was the only one available to go at the time, ended up causing himself a lot of trouble. Now that it was over he just wanted to fall face first into his bed. Which he fully intended to do as he walked into Iruka's room, a lot closer then his own. "It's after hours Gaara, I'm closed."

"I...was looking for Naruto." Gaara stood in the doorway looking around the room carefully. "I can't seem to find him."

Kakashi tossed his vest aside and sat down on the bed, looking up at Gaara "Your starting to feel it aren't you, how close you are to slipping in to hell."

Gaara looked at him with his usual stone expression, "What if I am, not like It matter's much. My existence doesn't seem to mean much."

"Guess not." Kakashi laid back, resting his hands behind his head "Maybe most people don't want to see you alive, maybe to them your a monster and that's all you'll ever be. As a mater of fact, most people won't ever see you as anything else, but you knew that didn't you."

"Then what's the point? If nothing I do matters then why bothering trying to save myself?"

"You know the answer to that." Kakashi rolled over and away from Gaara "If you didn't then you wouldn't still be here."

Gaara was silent, watching Kakashi for a moment to think about what he said. Then turning to leave.

"It must be scary."

"?" Gaara stopped, looking back.

"Going through something like this, unable to go a second with out wondering if the next time I fall asleep will I wake up from a hellish nightmare, and what and I going to do to the one I love. You probably want company, I don't blame you."

"..." Gaara sighed and turned back, leaning against the wall "Your act in the strangest manner I've ever seen."

Kakashi rolled over so that he was facing Gaara again "Yeah, yeah."

Gaara didn't respond, and after a few seconds it queried Kakashi enough to open his eyes. Nothing was out of the ordinary...but Gaara didn't seem that way, he was looking around in a defensive manner as if on guard "What?"

Gaara glanced at him then quickly went back to looking around "Don't you see it?"

"See what?"

Gaara stared toward the corner of the room, seeing a man standing there in a weary manner with his face half rotted through and seeping with maggots as if he was long since dead and burred. But Kakashi didn't see it. "Nothing..." He said, thinking it was just his imagination as he watched the strange man carefully, but as soon as he closed his eyes for a second the man was gone "To much talking like this I suppose." He barely noticed when he felt a cold breeze on the back of his neck, Gaara looked over his shoulder and flinched. Another person, a very large man with a seeping hole in his chest stood directly behind him. "!"

! - ! - !

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked, pacing around the small area and surveying the room carefully with no sign of anything other then them.

"Yes I'm sure." Gaara retorted anxiously, moving around erratically with seemingly no cause "Damnit, I'm not talking to you! Go away, you don't scare me!"

"Wait, who is he talking to?" Iruka asked, watching in confusion from the hallway next to Naruto.

Kakashi's shrugged "Ghosts? Himself? I don't know."

Neji and Kiba walked into the room from the lobby entrance, stopping curiously at the doorway to Iruka's room "We found no trace of anyone or anything other then us." Neji said. "Sasuke can't find anything with his Sharingan either."

_It's coming for you_

Gaara abruptly turned around, finding the same woman with half of a mouth and no arms he'd seen upstairs in the library now standing on the other side of the bed. Gaara turned back towards the group "Check again." he said firmly.

"Maybe we should go upstairs." Naruto suggested, looking over Gaara with evident concern "You know, have Neji check you--"

"No, I'm telling you they are here." Gaara was hastily with his words, afraid. It was strange to see him like this, "Something is happening, you have to check again--" Standing right next to him was a boy, about his size and age, deathly pale with blood covering his face from a place hidden by his hair.

_It's here_

Gaara took a deep breath and walked slowly seemingly in a calm but obviously shaken manner out side of the room and over to Naruto. "Naruto listen to me, you have to do--" Gaara's voice began to waver, gradually becoming weaker and weaker until the boy unexpectedly started falling.

Naruto reached forward and caught him for the second time in 10 minutes. "Gaara?" Naruto slowly laid him to the ground, he was out completely.

"What happened to him?" Kiba stood over him, looking down at him, then up at Naruto.

"It's ok." Iruka said reassuringly but with a given amount of worry "He dose this sometimes."

"No way, this can't be right. He just feel asleep like this 15 minutes ago." Naruto sighed "And he never acted like this before..."

! - ! - !

Naruto knelt down "We just have to find away to wake him up."

"What are you talking about?" Gaara stood over Naruto questingly, watching everyone stare down at the ground.

"I'm not sure we can wait this one out... and don't try hitting him, it doesn't work." Naruto told them.

"Wait a minute, I haven't gone to sleep...?" Gaara said, looking around in confusion as everyone began to walk away, couldn't they see him, couldn't they hear him? "Naruto? Wait, I'm here...I'm still here!" Before Gaara knew it everyone was gone, and he was alone...completely alone. "Naruto!"

_He can't help you now Gaara. No one can. The sound of light laugher could be heard, a voice that came from all sides with no source, an unfamiliar voice, a deep and hunting one. It was like Gaara had become a ghost, he couldn't be seen, he couldn't be heard. Gaara ran towards the nearest door where Iruka had just exited through, but when he reached for the door knob...his hand went right through, he couldn't touch anything. Almost as if he wasn't real anymore..._

"Is this the part where I say who's there." Gaara stood up strait and looked around, hiding his confusion. "And something creepy happens." ... A shadow streamed across the wall behind him with nothing to cause it, just like before, blowing an audible breeze over his body. Gaara looked back, nothing. "Thought so."

Taking one last look around, Gaara started walking. Moving with slow and cautious steps down the long wall with nothing but the sound of his own echoing footsteps to accompany him. There was a clicking sound as the door knob to door just ahead of him turned seemingly on it's own and the door swung open to a stairwell leading to the basement that lay behind it. "What are you?" Gaara looked around for any more signs of other presences, he wasn't sure what was causing all of this but he intended to find out. He walked forward, unsurprised when he heard the door slam shut behind him.

! - ! - !

"Naruto dose have a point." Neji walked through the open doorway to the library, moving quickly through the rows of books towards his study. "Gaara has been falling asleep more frequently lately."

"I say give him 20 minutes." Kiba said nonchalantly, "He'll be waking up next to you...man that is creepy."

"Look, I know he's done this before but look at the way he's acting, something's different this time!" Naruto slipped past the two and walked backwards so that he was facing them. "He's nervous, he's seeing things."

"Gaara can do that?" Kiba asked.

"We are dealing with a unique case, he dose have a demon inside of him." Neji opened the door to the small room and sat down at his desk "Gaara was suffering from insanity before, dementia certainly isn't out of the question."

"That isn't right." Naruto protested "All those times before he told me he never had these kind of problems, he never saw things that weren't there before, He's not crazy."

Kiba wasn't so sure. "I don't know Naruto, screaming about people who aren't there, and this _is_ Gaara we're talking about. He's always been crazy."

"And think about it Naruto, every time he falls asleep he tries to kill you, Shukaku is said to eat away at him and cause nightmares when he sleeps." Neji added.

"This isn't like all the other times. These nightmares aren't like those, and he never tried to kill people during those." Naruto's voice was nearly shouting level now "And if _that_ was it, why didn't it happen all those times he fell asleep before this? This all started _after_ we got back from the past."

"You guys don't know what Gaara's dealing with, were he goes when he falls asleep like this..." Naruto spoke solemnly, holding his head down "At first it was nightmares...now it's hell."

There was a small silence between them.

"Of course." Neji said.

Kiba shrugged. "Kinda of figured."

! - ! - !

"Hey..." Konohamaru moved quickly down the familiar corridor, checking each room as he went "What happened to Gaara? He was just here?"

! - ! - !

The basement, of course he was brought to the basement, this seem so predictable. Gaara looked around from the foot of the stairwell, at each flame burning dimly along each side of him, the larger one on the back wall could be seen from here. Again he heard that sound.

_Sheeekelop, Sheeekelop, Sheekelop _

"I've already played through this one." Gaara called out in annoyment, "Another go through isn't going to scare me." despite his words he walked slowly, moving through the outcasts of shadows and light that lay interlaced across the floor. He saw it...the same table, the same knife, only an arm lay in a pool of blood with no one in site. Gaara walked to the small table, examining everything carefully... 'Then...what was that sound?--!' The arm twitched making Gaara pull away quickly.

"Nightmare."

Gaara looked to his left, watching a woman step out of one of the shadows, out of nowhere. Her left eye had a Kunai driven into it, the blood long since ran out and dried around it. She laughed as she moved closer to Gaara.

Gaara watched with his mouth open slightly and his eyes narrowed "And what exactly would Nightmare be?"

"Nightmare wants you..." She stopped, face to face with the boy now.

Gaara smirked "Nightmare? If you think I'm afraid of a bad dream them your mistaken."

"It hurts..."

"I've been going through this same sleep thing for the last few months, If I--"

"Don't worry Gaara." The woman reached up to her left eye and took hold of the blade's handle, slowly pulling it out slowly with a disgusting sound that followed. "Haven't forgotten you." She flipped the Kunai around and drove it through his shoulder before Gaara could even react, making him flinch and stumble back. By the time he looked up again the woman was gone, leaving behind only the stinging pain of a knife that had been thrust in to him and the wetness of blood running down his left side.

Even without his gourd, sand should have tried to block, but it didn't move. In fact, Gaara hadn't even felt it move try to move... Gaara looked around again, everything was really gone...now he was starting to feel scared.

! - ! - !

Naruto sat in the last row as usual, his eye scanning over the demon book and then shifting to a notepad and writing key points diligently. He didn't even need the translations anymore, after a few days of non stop working he'd memorized each letter, abbreviation and symbol. And seeing it so much, looking at it was as natural as looking at his own language. "Yeah...the symptoms are right..."

Gaara sighed as he paced around lightly before him. "I think I know what those ghost I've been seeing are." He knew Naruto couldn't see him, but he wished more then ever that he could at least hear him. This was still unclear, why he suddenly fell asleep and couldn't be notice anymore, he even felt differently, as if his body was hanging over a hole and he was slipping down. With everything he'd gathered, Gaara was starting to piece things together. "They must have come to take me...Must have gotten tired of waiting for me to fall in on my own."

"...I think I can get those..." Naruto mumbled to himself, pulling another book in to his view, completely ignorant of Gaara's presence.

"It knows my name, it knows how to hurt me..." Gaara stopped, a sadden look coming on his face as he watched Naruto working diligently. He didn't want to die, he didn't want his existence to just fade away as if it were nothing. And to most people it was just that, nothing, except to a few people...like Naruto. "I wanted to thank you, for everything you've done for me. You tried to help...I wanted to tell you how much that meant to me but--"

"Damn, I'm good." Naruto smiled as he picked up his notes and started to write.

"What?"

"Just...add type O blood to it... I'm a genus."

Gaara smiled and knelt down next to Naruto. "Look's like It's not over for me yet."

Naruto looked over the book, his smile slowly fading until he picked up the book and threw it in to the wall "And it sends a feed back that turns half of Konoha in to mush! Damnit!"

"No!"

Naruto slammed his fist in to the ground and let his head fall back against the book shelf "I'll never figure this out."

"Yes you will!" Gaara called out "Don't give up Naruto please!" Gaara sub-consciously reached forward and grabbed Naruto's shoulder, but his hand drew back quickly and Naruto flinched 'I just...touched him..' Gaara reached forward again to only to see his hand go through Naruto's body.

Naruto jumped to his feet, looking around frantically. He felt something, he knew he felt something. It was so familiar, like sand grabbing him, it was just like _him_. It couldn't be...could it? Gaara had just disappeared with out warning, what if he was still here? What if that had been his sand? "Gaara? Was that you?"

"You...you felt it too didn't you?" Gaara stared down at his hands, it happened, it really happened "I'm here, I'm still here."

The lights flickered, just as they had before, and abruptly cut out. Leaving Naruto alone in the dark.

"No!" Gaara yelled, climbing to his feet and looking around. "He can feel me! He knows I'm here! I'm not going yet! Your not taking me!"

"G-Gaara...If that's you..." Naruto said, looking around in the darkness "Give me some sort of--Whaaa!" Naruto jumped back and fell after turning around and coming face to face with Kakashi's chest. "Damn it will everybody stop doing that."

"Naruto, we looked everywhere." He said, "Gaara's gone."

"The hell with that, I know what I felt. Gaara's still around here some place and we have to find away to find him." Naruto told him "If he keeps falling asleep then maybe he's trying to get to me and can't make it, maybe he's trapped someplace, maybe he's in trouble, maybe--"

"Naruto calm down, we'll find him."

! - ! - !

"Are we really going to do this?" Konohamaru asked questingly, staring down at a large steal that had been painted on the ground in the basement in a design that suggested a Jutsu.

"This is pointless, he's gone. He just left, get over it!" Sasuke snorted.

"Shut up Bastard! He didn't just walk away, not the way he is now, he couldn't have. I know I felt it, he's still here!" Naruto growled. "Neji, come on start already."

Neji looked up from one of the demon books he was reading "Patience Naruto, I've never done this before and if I don't do this correctly, I guarantee that none of you are going to like the results." Neji was certain of that, these Jutsu were so closely created that one wrong hand seals could mean a very hostile demon instead of a locating one. There was no way Gaara could have gotten out of the range of there search in 30 minutes, he would have been found, he wasn't fast enough not to be. "Just give me chakra and I'll do the rest."

Iruka and Kakashi looked at each other "I hope this works." Iruka clasped his hands together and began to concentrate, from there it was simple, all he had to do was get his Chakra flowing and the seal on the ground activated. Black lines of paint and blood became a light blue, the color of Iruka's Charka, and then black, the color of Kiba's Chakra (which Neji was taking note of, Kiba's chakra wasn't supposed to be this color). Deep orange followed, the color of Naruto's chakra, then a shift to white, the color of Neji's chakra, then a deep blue, Sasuke's, Followed by a gray, Kakashi's, and finally yellow, the color of Konohamaru's. All of them mixed into a glow of deep black.

'Here goes.' Neji lifted two fingers before his eyes and activated his Bakyugan, before he started performing head seals "Summon No Jutsu, Paragonta Norta Ninpo!" He shouted, causing a shockwave of red energy to propagate outward in a strong burst of wind. Sasuke had to grab Konohamaru and hold him down to keep him from flying away. Neji knelt down and picked up a large crystal at his side and tossed it directly into the center. "Offering of Pentantro stone."

Another shockwave resulted, a stronger one that sent everyone sliding backwards away from the seal. And as if the ground under the markings were made of glass, a wing burst through the seal, shattering it and dispersing it in to countless pieces. Most of them flinched when a loud screech shook the walls, and with the wing already above ground it pulled it self up. _It_ happened to be a large bird, a red bird with long tail yellow tail fathers streaming down from it's head to past it's feet. It's eyes were a light green, a yellow beak with an orange chest, and the tips of it's wings were lined with yellow and green feathers. And more importantly, it was on fire...at least it's wings were.

"Whoa! What the hell is that?" Konohamaru shouted, pointing a finger at the large bird.

The bird narrowed it's eyes "What the hell are you?" It said mockingly "What do I look like, a roasted turkey? Now what the hell did you guys call me for, Do you know what time it is? And if it's something stupid then all of you are so gona be smoted."

"I'm...sorry if we woke you up...but we need your help Fuhicho." Neji said nervously, this was unexpected, he wasn't sure how to deal with something with type of personality.

"And there wasn't anyone or anything else you could summon?" Fuhicho asked annoyedly. "Never mind, Just tell me what it is you want and if it's good enough I _might_ help you out."

Kakashi and Iruka looked at Neji, who gave them a light shrug "A friend of ours is gone, and we think he may not have left physically."

"You mean he's dead?"

"We're not sure, but we think he's still here, but we can't find him. And the reason we--"

"Yeah whatever, your not making any sense." The Phoenix said with an annoyed sigh, landing on the ground and pulling in it's wings. It was large enough to have to crouch and tilt his down to fit in the room, even if the ceiling was high. "Now, I have something to do at the crack of why the hell am I awake, so let's just move this along shall we. I'll just see what I can find."

The demon bird closed his eyes "Now, I'm going to let out some calming vibes to get us in the zone and we'll see if we can bring up your missing human." The bird started to glow in a fiery mix of orange and red, the light started to pulse off and on, dimmer and brighter, creating in a oddly soothing sound. Sasuke and Kiba, who were next to each other, exchanged looks, and Konohamaru just looked up at the both of them and shrugged, still mad about the insult Fuhicho. "Alright Humans, Clear your minds."

The demon looked around at the 7 of them quickly "...Which judging by the looks of you wont be too hard." The demon closed his eyes again, not seeing the look that Konohamaru was giving him.

"What, should he hold hands too?" Konohamaru retorted angrily.

"Only if your lonely" Fuhicho said with mocking sympathy "Now shut up!" The demon was silent for a moment, and then started to hum... "Those that have left us, passed through the gate of death, ascended from the living, those that are living that have not been found..." The bird spread it's wings, throwing fire embers into the empty area's of the room, and causing another red flash... "Show yourself to me, show me your spirit, show me your soul." Fuhicho took another deep breath, "I feel something...a presence."

"Hn." Gaara folded his arms as he watched the bird from his place unseen and unnoticed next to Naruto. Still clinching his bleeding sholder "Yes..."

"It's not human...a demon...a dark soul."

"Yes, I'm here, tell them to help me." Gaara said, not sure if the bird could hear him or not.

"It's coming..."

"What?" Gaara stared upward in confusion "Are you talking about, I'm already here."

The Phoenix took another deep breath, exhaling more embers from it's beak. "It's here...so much pain...suffering. A black soul..."

Naruto looked up "What? He's in pain?"

"It's here..." Fuhicho opened his eyes wide, "It's...it's Fea---..."

"Nightmare!" Gaara yelled "It's Nightmare damnit! Tell them!"

"No.. it's leaving.." Fuhicho scanned the room with it's green eyes "There are two demons here."

'Dose it mean me this time?' Gaara didn't say it out loud this time, just watched questioningly 'Two demons? Shukaku? '

"It's..Nigh--Ughaa!" Fuhicho eyes grew wide as sand jumped up from the ground, clinching the bird's legs, pulling it down as more sand fell from the ceiling and wrapped around his neck .

"Gaara?" Kakashi looked around seeing no sign of the boy except for the sand that was now attacking. "Gaara let him go."

"What? It's not me!" Gaara ran over to Kakashi, shouting at deaf ears.

...The sand became docile, running loosely off of the demon's body, Fuhicho gasped, taking in as much air as he could. "Whoa...Are you ok?" Naruto asked...only to have blood splattering on him from a thick spike of hardened sand that drove itself through the demon's chest.

! - ! - !

"Ok, what the hell was that?" Konohamaru softly closed the basement door. "I know that Gaara used to be a complete sociopath but why would he kill him?"

"He wouldn't." Sasuke said. "No advantage in killing someone you need help from."

"You think it was an accident?" Konohamaru leaned against the wall and let him slide down to the floor.

"...Or the dark soul that demon found wasn't the one we're looking for...theirs something else here, something worse. What bothers me is that it said there were two demons...what were they?"

Konohamaru looked up, thinking..."I...think I know what one of them is. It has to be the one that was after me...but, what was that name?" Konohamaru thought on it for a moment... "Where is Gaara anyway?"

! - ! - !

Naruto leaned back against the tile walls of the shower, hot water streaming down on to his body. The blood that covered him washed off in pink pools, he was happy to be rid of it...he heard a light and quick sound of rushing air that made him look towards a pate glass door that separated the shower. But with a light shrug he looked away.

Gaara stared at Naruto's blurry form from the other side of the door, watching, thinking... 'Why did it kill him? What ever this Nightmare demon is it's after me so couldn't have been worried the other demon was going to help, he didn't even know I was there...unless it wasn't about me..." Gaara paused as he stared down at the ground in thought...then he looked up toward the shower again "Wait, I think I know why it killed him, it was trying to hide something. Something it didn't want you too know--" Gaara sub-consciously lifted his hand, barely noticing it bump in to the glass...it touched the glass...!

Gaara slowly and curiously pressed his finger against the fogy window and as expected it went right through...'Come on...' He pulled back and tried again, concentrating hard as his finger touched the glass again... Gaara thought better of the moment and started writing, spelling out a word, a name. Nightmare.

Naruto reached forward and turned off the shower, shaking as much water out of his hair as he could before he turned to leave, deeming him self clean again. Naruto reached to open the shower door "What the..." He saw something, letters slowly being written on the glass as if someone was writing it on the other side, and though it was backwards he could still make it out. That didn't make it any less creepy. "What...the?"

'! The glass shattered and Gaara flew backwards feeling a strong impact on his chest, going through the wall in a ghost like way.

"Whhaaaa!" Naruto fell backwards in a rain of glass.

! - !- !

Gaara fell hard to the ground in the hallway out side of that wall, sliding to a stop a few feet away with a strong impact to the side of his face. Before he could even think of what had just happened to him, he herd something, someone...he looked towards the door leading to the library, where the distinct sound of someone coming down the steeps had been echoing from.

Gaara pulled himself to his feet "Fine, let's get this over with right now." He ran towards the door at the end of the corridor "I'm sick of this!"

The form coming down the steps finally was in view, and it wasn't what Gaara expected. It was a man in a suit, holding a briefcase the sight made Gaara freeze in confusion, this couldn't be it. "?"

"Gaara." The man walked past him, giving Gaara a complete view of his body, and revealing that half of his face was burned and disfigured beyond recondition, most of it was hanging off. Gaara turned around as the man's figure continued going, He started backing away slowly, and bumping in to something else.

Gaara flinched and turned around, finding that same woman with no arms again. "Gaara."

He couldn't even feel them coming, he knew his training should have given him the senses to detect when someone was coming from behind. But not these things, not whatever they were, Gaara never saw them coming until it was too late. "No." Gaara moved away, heading up the stairs to get away.

He nearly ran into another person, the woman who'd had the kunai in her eye was standing two steps above him. "It hurts..."

"No!" Gaara pushed past her and continued upward in a full sprint. "Damnit! I'm not talking to these things anymore!" Gaara pushed himself upward and in to the library. "I know what you are now, your sending _them_ in to scare me. Your just a weak little demon looking for a fight aren't you! Nightmare, coming to pull me down to hell. It's -- UAHHAAAA!" Gaara fell to the ground, clinching his body tightly. This immense pain washed over him unexpectantly with no source...

That same black shadow ran across the wall behind him, only this time it stopped above him, "I haven't forgotten you..." From behind, a demon walked over him, standing in to his view. It was blue, with a human shape but nothing but a large shadow for a body... "But first...I get to play."

Gaara stared up at the demon with wide eyes and his mouth open, the same demon that had been haunting him for months, the same that had forced him to try and kill Naruto while he slept, that made him fall unconscious into a hellish nightmare at unexpected times. And now Gaara was staring at it, and he was afraid, so afraid that his body started to tremble.

! - ! - !

"The dark soul...there are over 1000 different references." Neji flipped through a book of indexes for every other book in the library, something compiled partly by him and partly by his family for the books he'd gathered from them. "Four of them are about Gaara specifically."

"What?" Iruka walked quickly from outside in the library to Neji who was in the study a few feet away. "Let me see that."

Kakashi watched Iruka take the book and look over it carefully, noticing the large flaw in what they were doing "This is pointless, we'll never get anywhere like this. Even if we search inside Naruto's 300 references it will take to long."

"Hey this isn't fair!" Iruka called out "He was being controlled by a demon when he did that."

"Nightmare!" Naruto ran into the large room, slipping on his shirt as he moved throw the rows of books toward the others, working diligently. "Look up Nightmare."

Exactly what Neji had been looking for, He got up from his desk and headed into the library for a certain volume in the demon index.

Iruka looked up from the book, "Where did that come from?"

"It...came to me in the shower." Naruto picked up his notes from the ground and started looking over them carefully.

"I found something." Iruka stopped his pacing and set the book down on Neji's desk "Not much here though, 16th century demon named Nightmare for inhabiting and inducing types of sleep, it was killed though..."

"What kind of sleep?" Naruto paused long enough to pull on his jacket.

Neji reentered his study with a thick book in his hand and his Bakyugan active "The kind you don't wake up from, Nightmare inhabits a host and pulls them in to deeper and deeper sleeps until they don't wake up at all. Even then it keeps pulling until the body disappears completely, and the way it happens suggest intimate knowledge of Jutsus and some sort of supernatural powers." Neji turned the page.

"So what, is it eating Gaara?" Naruto asked

"No, there have been suggestions that this demon doesn't even exist, well not technically, the way it attacks suggest that it's pulling to another plane of existence. Which is most likely why it's inhabits bodies of others, because it's not "real" in this world." Neji told them. "Gaara's body is already gone."

"It's been taking over Gaara...so that's why he kept attacking me." Naruto's face lit up in realization "That thing was making him sleep and then controlling him. But didn't you say it was killed."

"Since it knew Jutsus and had powers..." Kakashi said "Maybe it knew a way to stick around."

Neji nodded. "I'm not sure why it was after you Naruto, but this would explain the more frequent sudden losses of conciseness. It must have been taking over more and more of him, and pulling more and more of him in to--"

Naruto pounded his fist into the wall with an angry growl "It can't be too late... You said it pulled body and all, but he can't be completely gone yet, I know it! Whatever it's doing to Gaara, we need to find away to get him back. Now."

! - ! - !

Gaara clinched at what he could as he struggled to get away, his left eye started to sting and closed instinctively to block out the steady stream of blood that flowed down from his head someplace hidden by his hair. His arm reached forward, covered in cuts and scars, moving desperately to get away. But before he could make another move on the library floor, flashes of someplace unknown rolled before his eyes, making his whole body feel burning hot and unbearably cold at the same time. He cried out in pain, trying to move faster.

The same blue shadow followed behind him, which Gaara suspected wasn't actually it's real form. "Demon soul, different then the others, squirms more..."

Gaara narrowed his open eye as his body gave out momentarily "Go...Go to hell." He growled, forcing himself to move again, only to stop again when a long shadow was cast over him. He slowly lifted his head and looked up, the light hurt almost as much as the blood in his eyes.

"Your trip, not mine."

The sound of hurried footsteps could be herd next to them as the unseeing Naruto walked through the rows of books and back to the spot where his notes and books were scattered. Gaara stared up at him, wishing that somehow Naruto would notice him, but the boy couldn't and he knew it. Gaara was no longer there, he wasn't real anymore, just an echo of himself. 'N-Naruto."

Nightmare looked over towards Naruto absorbingly, standing over him much to close for Gaara's comfort. So close that the demon could be touching Naruto if it was possible. "The Kyuubi boy, still trying to save you..." It was looking down at Naruto too hard for Gaara's comfort, watching carefully as Naruto flipped the pages of the demon book while he tapped a pencil against the ground impatiently "Such passion, youthful...and sweet... I'll can't wait until I can have a taste of him."

"No!" Gaara shouted, staring upward with wide eyes. He could feel his adrenaline pumping, giving him enough strength to climb to his feet and throw a hard punch at Nightmare, only to have his arm travel right through and his body stumble forward from the lost momentum as if the demon wasn't even there.

Nightmare laughed "Still thinking like flesh." The demon turned around abruptly so that it was face to face with Gaara. "There's none here, not in these place. All rules--"

The bright florescent lights suddenly dimmed and Gaara looked around in confusion as he suddenly found himself in the basement, standing in the faint light of Konohamaru's shrine. "--Are mine. Reality bends to my desire, the way it was meant to."

Gaara looked around feverously for the source of the sound, walking uneasily forward toward the back of the room. "Bending Reality...I didn't just fall asleep, it was you. That's why they can't find me, they can't see me anymore, why I can't touch anything..." Gaara continued to look around, breathing heavily to catch his breath from his previous struggling. There was still some energy left in him, enough to lift his right arm to his throbbing shoulder and hold his hand over the wound that had been forced open wider and wider by Nightmare during the process of his torture.

_Simple tricks, to amuse...your blood--_

Gaara looked down when he realized he didn't feel the wetness anymore, all of the red liquid was gone completely from every wound on his body. Scares and holes only remained... and the pain.

_Nothing here with out my will, Your voice, your body..._

"Clothes you think you wear." Gaara flinched and stumble to the side when the woman with kunai that had been through her eye appeared next to him, and his clothes were gone.

_Bloody killer, Murder and destroyer. Heh, heh, but scratch the surface... _

Gaara felt a chill run down his spine as the previous man who'd had half of his face burned and disfigured beyond recondition brushed his side as he walked past. "Weak, lonely child still crying for someone's love..."

_Know all of your hiddens, your dirty secrets. But fell in love, stopped doing dirty things..._

Ignoring his nakedness, continued to look around in complete confusion, watching for the people he'd just seen. "Thinks it matters, Hell still wants you." Gaara turned around quickly and found himself face to face with the woman who had no arms. Gaara fell backwards, his weak body was barley strong enough to catch himself.

_Knows he deserves it, like all the others._

That's when Gaara realized something. "You killed them, these ghost I keep seeing."

_I took them, they were like insects, scurrying from the flames_

"They were fine..." Gaara called out angrily "Until you pulled them down...If they're in hell, then they can't be here, they aren't real!"

_Real enough_

From behind, the man with the knife that had been cutting his arm off, came through the darkness and drove the knife in to his back. Illustrating Nightmare's point. "Uhaaa!" Gaara tumbled forward and fell to the ground, blood seeping in pools around him from an area next to his spinal cord.

_You are nothing but a soulless murder, I want him_

"N-Naruto!"

! - ! - !

Kakashi and Iruka looked curiously as Naruto wrote on the hardwood ground in his own messy, nearly unreadable handwriting with a black marker. Seemingly engrossed in what he was doing. Kakashi folded his arms "That's never good."

Naruto glanced back at the sound of his voice, "Oh no, I just ran out of paper, I'm not crazy."

"Just scary persistent." Kakashi's comment earned him an elbow and a look from Iruka.

"Do you really think this is going to work Naruto?" Iruka asked "I mean you barley know what your reading, let alone know what needs to be done."

Naruto nodded "I know, that's why Neji is helping me. See, I'm going to try and use a re-embody and recreation Jutsu. Look, there he is now." Naruto pointed behind the two men with the black marker in hand toward Neji who was coming toward them with a scroll.

"Naruto, I can set this Jutsu up, but if this is going to work then we're going to need massive amounts of Chakra." Neji rolled up the scroll he'd transcribed from one of the demon books and placed it under his arm. "Where are we going to get that?"

"Well.." Naruto stopped and thought about it for a moment, his eyes drifting around the room... until they settled on himself. "I think I know a place."

! - ! - !

"Pace yourself Konohamaru." Sasuke said, "Just take it easy."

Naruto was laying on the ground in the open space of the library, surrounding by another seal composed partly of paint, partly of his blood and partly of Konohamaru's, who was knelling down beside Naruto. Konohamaru was pressing his hands against Naruto's exposed torso, his finger tips just barley touching the seal on Naruto's stomach. Yellow chakra was pulsing into the seal, making it glow with a golden light, it was hard for Konohamaru to use small amounts, which was needed for this, but he was getting better at it. "I'm...trying."

"You can do this." Sasuke reassured from outside of the intricately designed ensign, standing near one of the flames encircling it. Konohamaru needed his chakra to be as small and precise as possible, because with Naruto's help he was putting a crack in the seal, with Naruto forcing it of course. And this task took a lot of Chakra.

Iruka and Kiba watched ideally nearby while Neji and Kakashi, the only other person that could work with this type of Jutsu, prepared. "Are you ready?" Kakashi asked, holding a few strands of Naruto's hair as a medium for the Jutsu about to be performed.

'Damnit fox, Your in_ my_ body.' Naruto yelled in his mind, his body tense and shaking "You have to help me out...please? Come on, I'm cracking this damn thing on my stomach, isn't that what you want?' Naruto waited, pushing his own Chakra in to the seal and since it was on him he had more power over it. He could feel it weakening, no matter how small and little that weakening was...and then he felt it, a hairline crack appeared in the designs of the seal. "! Ahhaaaaaa!" And it hurt like hell. "Uhaaaaaa!"

Naruto's cries of pain made a violent shift into a loud, animistic growl and an explosion of red Chakra. "Whaaaa!" Konohamaru flew backwards in a gust of red wind, and in a second Sasuke was there, catching him. "Thanks Sasuke...Uh...I don't think I can move." Konohamaru tried to lift his arm, but he'd put out way to much Chakra at one time, more chakra then his body was supposed to have. The strain made him weak.

The marks on Naruto's face grew longer, his hair grew so long that it was nearly covering his eyes. His canines grew into fangs that extended outside of his mouth, and his eyes shifted into golden orbs with silted pupils. "I think...It's working." He said, panting and sweating heavily. Red Charka flowed in to each and every line of the seal, making it glow...

Neji and Kakashi started the hand seals, a very long and complicated set of them.

"If Gaara is around here, how do we let him know where to go?" Iruka asked.

"He'll know." Neji said "Any and everything in this building is about to feel the feedback. Hold on to something."

! - !- !

Gaara fell to the ground, cold, naked, shaking, hurt, dripping with blood. He felt so weak, and his attempts to fight back were all useless. He could feel Nightmare moving closer to him, running it's finger's through his hair, clinching the strands tightly and pulling his head off the ground. "Your starting to realize it now..."

"No. You...you can't be real, Your not!" Gaara shouted surprised but uncaring how frightened his voice sounded. Nightmare just laughed, lifted Gaara's head up even more in a painful grip, outstretching a blue and shadowy hand. "No, your not...you couldn't be to do this to me, you can't be alive to do what you did to me, to make me hurt him. What are you?"

A black light started to glow from the large flame at the back wall, it covered everything in a deep shadow as it expanded until it covered the entire wall. Then it became like liquid, shifting and stirring like waves in a storm. This was it and he knew it, it made his shaking become violent and a chill shudder through him...he was afraid, more then he ever thought possible. And as the demon dragged him along the ground towards it, he couldn't do anything about it, except to watch it reach out for him. This was hell, and he was staring it in the face, he could hear echoing screams from the other side, causing him unrelenting fear that would haunt . "W-what are you doing...why did you pick me..?"

"You go now...so I don't have to go back, so I can stay."

That's when Gaara realized everything. "Your not real...you can't be alive, You...your using me, you've been pulling me down so you can pull your self out of hell...y-you want Naruto." Gaara's face contorted in anger and his body tensed "But I'll go to hell before I let you hurt him!" Gaara threw his elbow back into Nightmare's face, knocking the demon off of him.

Nightmare stumbled back on to the ground "You dare..."

"Damn right." Gaara stood up, watching as the black light of the outreaching hell fade away, he turned back towards Nightmare "Reality bends to desire, isn't that what it was? That's why I could touch Naruto, write your name in the glass. You may be killing me, my body may be gone, I may barely exist and slipping in to hell anyway, But if I desired it enough..." Gaara looked down at himself as his clothing reappeared, and his existence was returning by the second. "What do you think I desire to do now?"

! - ! - !

The Shadowy form of the demon flew up the stairs, it's body landing halfway between the hallway wall in a ghost like way. Gaara jumped from the darkness of the lower level and landed on top of Nightmare, grabbing it's neck and sending a volley of punches to it's face. "You killed these people to get your self out of hell, took over them, push them in yourself. But I see now that you could never quite get out completely."

Nightmare threw a punch at Gaara, but Gaara caught it's hand and drove his knee into it's stomach repeatedly. "So you tried to use me to get to _him_. So you could take him, so you _could_ get." Gaara started throwing punches at it's face again, this time grabbing on to it's forehead "It's not so fun when the souls you take fight back is it!"

Nightmare drove it's head upward into Gaara's, making him veer back, then punched him in the side of his face hard enough to send Gaara flying. Now free, the demon stood up strait, holding it's arms outward, the blue body becoming a black shadow "Starting to be." From it's body, long tentacle like appendages spewed forth, the red eyes glowing visibly. With in seconds, Nightmare's form had become a shapeless mass of countless tentacles, two red eyes larger then Gaara seemingly floating separately from the body.

Gaara drew back, just enough to stay out of range. "I am not afraid of you!" He took a step back and then ran at Nightmare, diving into the tentacles and punching as deep in as he could. This would have been much easer with his sand. The black tentacles wrapped around his waist, his arms, his legs, his neck.

"Learned a few of my tricks did you." Nightmare began to constrict, tighten around him, that voice seemed to have no source. "Mean's nothing dose it?" The tentacles became sharp blades, and the demon began to spin. Faster and faster until it's body was a black blur acting as a vacuum while the sickles digging into his body and tainting the black tendrils blood red before Gaara was thrown from it. He flew through the next door, landing on the stairway that lead up to the library, bleeding from scares in just about every different place on his body.

Nightmare's long appendages reached through the wall in the same ghost like way, latching on to Gaara's legs. Gaara grabbed them before they started to draw him in, ignoring the pain that came when the black tentacles became blades again and dug in to his palms. Gaara placed a foot back and gave one sharp pull with all of his strength, a jerk powerful enough to pull the demon towards him completely and slam it to the ground by the same two tendrils. But as soon as he was close to it, the demon started to wrap it self around him and entangle him again.

And just before it was about to tighten completely, a large, red shockwave came down from below and knocked them apart.

It was Chakra, strong Chakra, and from here Gaara could hear force, winds blowing above. This was his sign, he felt that Chakra, he felt Naruto. Gaara turned and ran for the steps, leaving Nightmare behind.

! - ! - !

"I feel it!" Naruto yelled out, staring up at the ceiling from the center of the seal. "He's here!"

Kakashi and Neji, standing on opposite sides of the seal to direct and manipulate the Jutsu. They looked up at each other and nodded.

"Gaara!" Iruka's called out, looking around for any signs of him "Step into the seal and hurry, we've only got one chance at making you--" Iruka's eyes grew wide and his hands clinched at his neck, choking from some unseen force. Nightmare was there already, one of the long appendages wrapped around Iruka's neck un noticed by him.

Gaara finally reached the top of the stairs, looking around at everything, and hearing Iruka's directive voice suddenly cease. And then he spotted Nightmare. "Iruka!"

"It's Nightmare." Kiba took his best guess, inferring that from what had happened to Fuhicho before as he ran over to Iruka "He's killing h--" Before he could even get close, an invisible force gave him a strong blow across the face, knocking him away.

"_Which is it boy, the man's life, or your chance to escape hell_."

Gaara looked ahead, and at the back of the room he could see that same black light as before, unseen to the others. "Damnit!"

_Decisions, Your hope, or the flesh. No time for both _

Gaara came from behind in a blur of speed, fast enough to be un noticed by the demon "Let him go!" He dived into the air, driving his body into the mass of sourceless tentacles and thrusting his feet into it hard enough to knock it away.

! - ! - !

"Ahhaaaa!" Naruto screamed out, "Something's coming." Chakra was being pulled from him into some unknown source. "Is it suppose to be this bad!"

"Something's wrong." Kakashi said, feeling chakra being pulled from him in much lager amounts then he was giving . "Bringing Gaara back shouldn't take this much."

From thin air, a black tactical surfaced above Naruto, followed by more and more until Nightmare appeared, wrapped around Gaara who was fighting against it with all his strength. As soon as the Jutsu as broke, Kakashi ran over to Iruka and Neji headed for Kiba.

"What have you done!" Nightmare yelled, apparently not happy. "Infantile, I'll destroy every one of you. I'll--"

A loud growl came from below as Naruto jumped upward, swiping his claws at the demon with all Kyuubi's strength and knocking it away from Gaara "You'll shut the hell up!"

"Naruto!" Gaara took a step before his body gave way and he stumbled to the ground. "Don't kill it! If it dies again then it'll just come back."

And when Nightmare saw Naruto touched Gaara, it realized that what it wanted all along had just happened. It was real in this dimension, where it was in reach of Naruto...

Naruto grabbed Gaara's arm and pulled him on to his feet, Gaara had to hold on to his shoulder. "Gaara, your ok! God I was so worried about you" Naruto gave a fanged smiled as he looked over Gaara's body, the body that was covered in blood and wounds. Naruto was putting out so much of Kyuubi's Chakra that he was starting to transform, he didn't care though. "I knew you weren't gone yet!"

"Wait..." Gaara looked around frantically from the ground "Where is it? Where is Nightmare?"

"That thing?" Naruto asked, taking a quick scan of the room "I don't know."

Gaara held on to Naruto's shoulders for support, "No...we can't let it get away..."

! - ! - !

"Go ahead Naruto." Iruka rubbed Naruto's head lightly, who was back to normal now. Iruka had his own visible set of bruises around his neck from Nightmare. "We'll finish cleaning."

"Sure?" Naruto asked with a yawn, "It's a lot."

Iruka looked around at the Library, Neji was not happy about this one. Paint and blood from the seal was everywhere, not to mention Gaara's blood that was all over the place, and a large burn mark from Naruto's Chakra. "Yeah, I've did more work on one of your pranks, remember that one with the half stick of dynamite? I think we can handle this." Iruka smiled "Go talk to Gaara."

Naruto took one last look around, Kakashi, Kiba, Sasuke and Neji were still cleaning. Konohamaru was sound asleep in Neji's study, and Gaara was...someplace. "Thanks Iruka."

"Yeah yeah, just go find him."

! - ! - !

Gaara looked at himself, laying in his bed, his whole body wrapped in bandages. He'd died, his soul was nearly fed to hell, and he'd reentered the world through a Jutsu, a demonic one at that. He could barley move...but he was happy he could let out a sigh of relief, it was over and he was glad for it.

Naruto walked into Gaara's room, looking around the nearly empty space as he made his way over to the bed and sat down. Gaara looked up at him for a moment, both sharing a moment of silence before Gaara spoke. "Thank you."

"Thank you? For what?" Naruto queried.

"You didn't give up on me, I almost gave up on myself." Gaara said. "I just want to thank you."

Naruto smiled, climbing on to the bed next to Gaara and laying his head on Gaara's chest "Good to have you back Gaara, I missed you so much."

"I missed you too Naru." Gaara closed his eye and wrapped his arm around Naruto, he opened them again when he felt Naruto shifting out of his hold.

"Hold on." Naruto said, climbing out of Gaara's bed and running over to the dresser where a CD player was sitting. Then he made his way back to Gaara, and curled up next to him "Are you going to tell me your favorite song now?"

Gaara looked down at Naruto "I don't know if I have one."

Naruto reached upward and slid the headphones over Gaara's ears, "Make sure you tell me when you pick one. Promise" Naruto said, he knew this was important, because the last time he asked that, Gaara hadn't given him an answer. He needed this, some type of reassurance that Gaara wouldn't leave, not after everything they've been through.

"Yes, I promise."

"Thank you."


	16. Chapter 16: Fear

Chapter 16: Fear

Itachi looked around the darkness at the distant forms of shadowy trees, a black sky, shining stars, and a distinct feeling that something was off. He didn't normally have dreams, not these types of dreams at least. He was fighting, something he couldn't see, nor hear, only feel when it was attacking and he was losing. Loosing horribly. And every time he used Sharingan to try to detect his enemy, he only found himself staring at a pair Sharingan eyes, as if he was looking at a mirror of himself.

Itachi slid backwards, feeling a large impact on his chest from out of the darkness, then another sharp pain on his back that made him stumble. 'What is this...' This felt a little too real to be a dream, this couldn't be a dream...could it? The thought was pushing into Itachi's mind, making itself more and more believable with every blow that fell on him.

Itachi grunted and lifted his arm to wipe away a stream of blood running down his cheek, 'I can't even sense it...What's going on.'

"Itachi!"

Everything else was uncertain, but Itachi was sure he'd heard that, that was Kisame's voice. "Kisame?"

! - ! - !

Kisame charged forward, his Samahada down to his side dragging along the ground and leaving a small trail behind in the grass. He pulled it back slightly, then swung it upward with both arms just as he came upon Itachi's body, striking the strange creature mounted on top of the Uchiha in the chest and knocking it away with a powerful uppercut, enough to draw blood.

Only while it was flying off of the other boy could he get a good look at it. "W-what the hell is that thing..." The first thing he noticed were those eyes, this creature was covered in Sharingan eyes, and was it doing to Itachi? Kisame knelt down next to Itachi who seemed to be waking up, "Itachi, are you alright?"

Itachi rubbed his head, feeling disoriented and dizzy, and probably the most disturbing fact was he still felt the sting from all of the blows he'd taken before, and the fact that he was bleeding in the same places. But...that was a dream? "I'm fine." Itachi said, glancing over toward the creature Kisame freed him from, 'What...it can't be...' Itachi drew back apprehensively at the sight, it bore the image of his father, only monstrously mutated with an abundance of Sharingan eyes.

'That's why I kept seeing those eyes.' Itachi climbed to his feet, looking toward the demon in cautious manner with out knowing what to expect. "Kisame, what happened to me?"

"I don't know." Kisame shrugged "One minute you were with me, then the next thing I know you were gone. When I found you again, _that_ was on top of you."

The Sharingan Demon got up, the eyes covering it's shifted around over their surroundings, then turned towards Itachi all at once. The Uchiha immediately knew what was happening, "Kisame! Close your eyes!" He called out.

Kisame complied, feeling a little uneasy being without sight around a demon and with no choice but to trust Itachi. His grip on his sword tightened considerably.

'Why dose it have those eyes...I have to find out.' Itachi's pupils shifted from the piercing black to the crimson of his active blood line. His eyes locked with the demon's and he activated the inane Genjutsu, attempting to pry into the creature's mind.

It uttered one word in his father's deep commanding voice, "Uchiha."

Itachi suddenly felt overcome, "It's...strong.." he said, feeling as if his mind was being crushed. It's Sharingan was more advanced, more powerful then his own, and every second he was being sucked farther and farther into it.

"Itachi, are you alright?" Kisame asked worriedly. "What's going on out there?"

Itachi was about to respond but the only thing that came out was a strained groan, his mind finally lost strength and was overtaken by the demon. And the second it happened he found himself barded with a familiar image in an unfamiliar way. "!" Now when the demon said Uchiha, it finally made sense, a connection Itachi wasn't happy to make. Itachi's body was knocked back as if from some invisible force, landing hard a few feet away. "Ughaaaa!"

'What's going on out there...' Kisame couldn't wait any longer, so he pulled his forehead protector down over his eyes and lifted his sword, running in the direction he saw the demon last. 'Come on, let this be right...' Kisame drew his sword back and swung blindly, immediately letting out a breath of relief when he felt the resistance of flesh against the edge of his blade. He pushed harder, feeling what ever he'd just it being thrown from his path. 'Did I get it?' Kisame lifted the headband from over his eyes, a risk he had to take.

"Huh?" Kisame looked around..."It's gone...What?" There was no trace of it, none but Itachi laying on the ground behind him. "Itachi, are you alright?"

Itachi lifted his hand to his head, forcing himself to sit-up. "It was...too strong for me..."

"What was that thing?" Kisame took hold of Itachi's arm and pulled him on to his feet.

"I'm not sure." Itachi did manage to get one piece of information from that attack, since he was mentally forced to relive the day he killed every one of his family members, only in the role of the person being killed, the role of _each_ Uchiha he'd slain order. He was able to come to a definite conclusion "But it's after Uchiha family members."

! - ! - !

Konohamaru rolled over in his sleep, half expecting to find Sasuke there, though the part of him that was conscious was disappointed that he wasn't. '...probably out training.' He thought to himself. Konohamaru didn't usually get up early, his mind usually wasn't coherent enough to get out a thought at this hour. But he'd gotten a lot of sleep the previous day after expending large amounts of Chakra to help out Naruto. 'I wonder if it worked...'

Konohamaru opened his eyes, finding himself in his room instead of Neji's and figuring Sasuke must have carried him down here. And he was in nothing but a pair of boxers so he must have woken up sometime in the middle of the night and he couldn't he remember it. It was pretty hot, much hotter then it usually got down here... Konohamaru rolled out of bed, looking in the comfortably dim lights of the still burning flames from his shrine.

"!"

Konohamaru jumped, his mind racing as he immediately grabbed a Kunai resting on his nightstand, turning back and letting the weapon fly. Though it was easily intercepted by Kisame who caught it with two fingers only inches away from his chest. "Nice going kid, almost got me there. Next time aim for the head."

"Boss?" Konohamaru looked up at Kisame, his lips immediately curving into a smile. "Sorry, you sacred me. How'd you get down here?" Konohamaru was well aware that Kisame was a wanted criminal and if anyone saw him he wouldn't have made it this far...then he remembered Kisame was a ninja. "Oh yeah, nevermind...where's Itachi?"

Kisame folded his arms and looked up toward the ceiling "Something attacked him, a demon. Heh, where's SDI when you need them."

"A demon really? What did it look like?"

Kisame thought about the mundaness of going in to detail, then he remembered that Konohamaru was apart of an association that _hunted_ Demons. "It looked human, but it was covered in eyes, similar to the ones the Uchiha family has. Seen something like it?"

"Yeah!" That sounded familiar to Konohamaru, how could he forget the thing that attack Sasuke? "I saw something like that yesterday morning, when I woke up it was on top of Sasuke. It was doing...something to him, what's that weird eye thing called?"

"Sharingan." Kisame looked down at him, this may defiantly have been the same demon 'It was on top of Itachi too...' Either there was more then one or this was too closely related to be a coincidence. "Did Sasuke say anything about it looking like anyone he knew?"

Konohamaru nodded "Yeah, his said something about his father."

No, this was the same demon, no doubt about it. "Look's like a demon's after your friend Sasuke then."

"Really? That demon?" Konohamaru thought about it for a moment "Sasuke can handle it."

"Yeah right, that thing took down Itachi in a few seconds." Kisame warned "If you want him to stay alive, you should make sure he doesn't fight it alone."

"Itachi..." Konohamaru may have completely idolized Sasuke, but he knew his brother was stronger. And if it beat Itachi, then Sasuke didn't stand a chance. "Is he alright?"

"Don't worry about him." Kisame told him, "But that's not what I came here for."

Konohamaru started looking around for his clothes again, finding them neatly laid out nearby. "What is it Boss?"

"Pick an Element."

Konohamaru sat down as he pulled on his pants, glancing up at him confusedly "Huh?"

"The weapon you wanted, pick a element. Fire, ice, lighting, water, wind, earth, metal." Kisame sat down on Konohamaru's bed, leaning back on to the wall it was set against lazily.

Konohamaru slid the black shirt over his head, feeling a certain longing for his regular one baring the Leaf insignia, then reached for his scarf and wrapped it around his neck. "Uh...fire sounds really cool...no...lighting sounds better...I like water though...maybe earth, that sounds strong...what do I get if I pick earth?"

"A very blunt object."

"...Wind...what do I get if I chose that? That sounds cool."

Kisame closed his eyes, this could take a while. "A very light crossbow."

Konohamaru thought about it. "What about lighting?"

"Just pick one damnit."

Konohamaru didn't ask again, he silently contemplated to himself instead. "Then I chose...Metal."

"Finally." Kisame reached into the dark cloak he wore and retrieved a set of Kunais made of a strange metal, only they were blue except for the edges of the blades, which were completely clear. What seemed to be the most defining thing about them were the designs carved into the center. "Here."

Konohamaru caught each one as Kisame threw it to him, looking over the weapons as if they were the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. "Whoa."

"Don't get wide eyed on me yet, since it's metal it works with Chakra, so your going to learn how to use yours if you want to use that." Kisame pushed off the bed and knelt down next to Konohamaru, "You see these." He pointed to two small holes at the bottom of the handle. "I designed it so that putting your Chakra in to the handle creates a wire, the more you put in, the longer and stronger the wire gets."

Kisame took the weapons back after Konohamaru got a good look at them, "Watch." For him it was simple, pushing his chakra into the handles in small amounts. Then he pressed the two small holes together and pull them apart again, this time a blue wire lay in-between them, connecting them together. "Simple. The same applies to the top, you push Chakra into the blade and..." The clear edges of the blades changed to blue, the color of Kisame's Chakra. "The more you put in, the worse it's going to hurt when you hit someone. Wanna try that out too?"

Konohamaru shook his head frantically. "No, that's ok!"

Kisame gave Konohamaru the weapons back, having no point in keeping them if Konohamaru didn't want another...demonstration. Usually Kisame's demonstration's or training for that mater meant working out some frustrations until he deemed Konohamaru had enough. "I made them simple enough that even you can use it."

"Hey!" Konohamaru gave him the meanest look he could mange but gave up when he realized Kisame was laughing at him. He didn't care, he was much too involved with his new weapons. And these apparently weren't for throwing 'Wait, these are Kunai's, they're meant to be thrown. But why would he give me something I'm only going to use once?...Unless...'

Konohamaru pressed the handles together, pushing his Chakra into the Kunai's then drawing them apart. It'd worked just like Kisame showed him, he could see a yellow wire between them, the more of his energy he pushed in, the longer the wire became. With that idea in mind he held one Kunai in his hand and the other by the wire, then he drew his arm back and threw it forward. Pushing more Chakra in as he watched it fly to the other end of the room and crash into the wall, the wire still intact. And since he'd put so much in, it was completely visible. "Whoa, that is so cool."

"That's not all kid, you see those markings?" Kisame pointed to the markings on the blade that Konohamaru still held. "Move your Chakra from the wire and in to that."

Konohamaru listened, drawing his chakra from the wire and into the markings on his one remaining blade. The engravings carved into the black metal became yellow, then the other Kunai he'd just thrown came reeling back towards him with a rapidly shortening wire. It was so unexpected that Konohamaru flinched, luckily Kisame had been there to catch it before it ran into Konohamaru's face. "Thanks."

"Just pay attention next time. And one last thing, the Chakra you put into that wire stays that way. So until you do what I just show you and take all of the Chakra from it, then that rope stays the same length. If you use it right, it'll be helpful, but you probably wont figure it out anyway."

Konohamaru was about to say something back to Kisame for insulting his intellect, but he found himself unable too. A strong rush of pressure washed over his head, as if he was getting a very bad headache. "Ahaaa!" He fell to his knees, clinching his head tightly. The pain was so intense, and it burned severely. The next thing he knew, images bombarded his mind, familiar images, of a forest, he was seeing a forest...The same forest he'd seen in his dream, and he felt just like this that time too. In a forest, blood, a body... "Ahhaaaa!"

'_Die_.._Reedamaru_...'

They were flashes, too quick to decipher with normal thought. "Stop it! I'm not Reedamaru!"

"Konohamaru!" Kisame ran over to him, his eyes coming upon something oddly strange "Wait a minute..." There was a black Chakra surrounding Konohamaru, one that seemed to be pushing down on him as if trying to get inside of him. The same black Chakra Itachi had described when they rescued Konohamaru from a basement that didn't exist. 'That's what he was talking about when he said a demon was after him, what the hell is it doing! And...Reedamaru? It doesn't want him, it wants his father!'

Kisame pulled his Samahada from his back and swung it directly at Konohamaru, the blade just barely skimped over the boy's neck enough to qualify as a touch, but it hit the black Chakra directly and the darkness seemed to lift from the boy at the contact of the Chakra eating weapon... Konohamaru fell backwards to the ground with eyes wide, both he and Kisame watching silently as a black haze rose like smoke and dispelled when it hit the ceiling.

"Ok, what the hell was that?" Kisame stood, still watching the spot where the black haze had disappeared for any signs of it.

"That's it." Konohamaru scrabbled off of the ground and latched on to Kisame's leg fearfully "That's the thing that's after me!"

Kisame thrust the sword into ground and kicked Konohamaru off of him "First thing, get the hell off me and stop being so scared. I told you you'd have to fight against it soon or later. Why do you think I made those for?"

Konohamaru tumbled backwards, landing in a sitting position on the ground. "Yeah...I guess your right."

Kisame picked up his sword and returned it to his back, "I heard you guys have a database on demons, you have resources, don't waste them." He said, turning to leave.

"Wait! Your just going to leave me here?"

"Don't worry, I'll be back, I need to find Itachi. So stop being so afraid, your suppose to be trying to become a Ninja. And your boyfriend's here anyway." Kisame called back, right before his body disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Just as Kisame had said, Sasuke descended down the stairway from above without ever being aware of Kisame's presence, though he saw the smoke. "Practicing a new Jutsu?" He inquired, knowing Konohamaru often tried to create his own technique though he unusually failed.

"Sasuke, it happened again." Konohamaru spoke more calmly then he himself had expected too, though his voice still came out slightly panicked, and he was panicked. "That thing attacked me."

"Are you alright?" Sasuke looked over him with evident concern, checking for any injury. "What happened?"

"I don't know, it just came out of nowhere. It's gone now..."

"Where did you get those?"

Konohamaru looked down at the Kunai's in his hand, he was sure if he said the word Kisame then things would turn out badly, and he was horrible at lying to Sasuke..."I...got them from a friend...a while ago." A half lie, that wasn't so bad. "And...it called me Reedamaru again, it told me to die. It was doing something to me, it hurt.."

'...What's doing this to him...demon.' "Come on, let's see if we can find out what's going on."

! - ! - !

Sasuke emerged from the basement, looking around cautiously, followed by Konohamaru who was walking closely behind with his Kunais in hand. "Do you have any idea what that thing is?" Sasuke asked "Or who Reedamaru is?"

"Not sure, demon I think...and I don't know who Reedamaru is." Well, Konohamaru didn't completely know who Reedamaru was, not enough to help anyway. Or at least that's what Konohamaru--... Konohamaru froze, feeling a cold breath run over his neck, one that shouldn't have been there. "Sa-Sasuke..." Konohamaru called out, slowly turning around only to come face to face with one of nine-tail's offspring. "Ahaaaa!"

Sasuke immediately turned around "Konohamaru! What's wrong?" Sasuke couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it at all, he hadn't even sensed it.

Konohamaru stumbled backwards, holding the kunais in his defense. The demon fox lunged at him with it's mouth wide, just barely Konohamaru held the kunais out and blocked it's mouth, trying to push back while the demon's jaws bit down on the metal so hard that it should have broken through regular ones. "Where did this thing come from?" Konohamaru panicked, and just as before his Chakra exploded, most of if traveling around him but a good amount of it entered his Kunai. It forced the demon pup to let go and pull back, then it's body flew to the side and down the stairs thanks to a swift kick from Sasuke.

Sasuke ran down after it... only to find that it was gone. "What?"

"Sasuke..."

Sasuke felt a small wetness at his heels, causing him to glanced down just enough to see that he was standing in a pool of blood, blood that was streaming down the stairs in small rivers. 'What...? Konohamaru!' Sasuke's eyes widened as he turned to head back, and just as he reached the top, the door slammed shut in his face hard enough to make him stumble backwards a step or two. Sasuke turned the knob with no avail, then he rammed the door with his shoulder. "The hell, it's blocked!"

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru ran to the door and pounded his fist against it, no matter how he tried nothing would open it.

"Reedamaru."

Konohamaru saw it, a shadowy figured from the corner of his eye, he flinched and turned around, his back falling against the door from lost balance. 'It's gone!' Konohamaru looked around frantically, watching helplessly as every door in the hall slammed shut, he was trapped. "Sasuke!" He called out, watching in horror as blood seeped through the walls, forcing Konohamaru to jump back away from the concrete barrier.

Sasuke yelled in frustration at his helplessness being trapped on this side. "Sharingan." His black eyes changed to the red of his blood line and the level 2 Sharingan, but all he could see was black, this black Chakra that surrounded the doors and walls. "Konohamaru! You have to fight this, just don't panic." He called out, taking a step back away from the blood running under the door.

'He's right.' Konohamaru told himself, though his heart was willing to fight, his mind was shaken. But he forced himself, mainly from fear. Chakra flowed around him, most of into the metal kunais. Notably he felt as if he was being pulled on, like his chakra was being drawn from him, he barely noticed through. "Leave me alone!" Konohamaru pressed the handles together and created the Chakra rope...

"Reedamaru..."

Konohamaru turned back, throwing one of Kunais before he even caught a glimpse of what he was attacking. The blade flew through a cloud of black smoke and into the bleeding wall behind him, Konohamaru moved the Chakra in the wire to the engravings on the blade and pulled the thrown knife back to him.

"Die, Reedamaru."

Konohamaru cried out in pain from the burning that scorched his head, his eyes grew wide as he watched the black chakra surrounding him, surrounding his Chakra. His body tensed and he fell to his knees as he felt blood dripping down from the ceiling, before he could even notice it his mind was bombarded with images.

That forest that same forest he kept seeing before, he realized he knew that place, it used to be the forest surrounding Konoha. It was a familiar place, familiar enough to know that this place he was seeing was on the ground this building was built on. And blood was everywhere, streaming down the trunks of surrounding trees, dripping from the leaves, exactly like what was happening here. He heard a scream, someone, a woman pleading for someone to stop, though Konohamaru could barely make it out he heard a name...Reedamaru... right before Konohamaru saw the man killing the same woman in a brutal manner, spilling more blood..."Stop it! I'm not him!"

'How can this Chakra be so strong...' Sasuke drew his arm back, pooling chakra into his palm, followed by streaks of lighting that sparked in his hand "Chidori!" The energy intensified in one large burst, becoming a blinding light that shined through every shadow. Sasuke was so intent on building his energy that he didn't even notice the curse seal creeping down his arm. "Konohamaru!" Sasuke thrust his hand onto the blocked door, blowing it apart in a cloud a smoke and discharging lighting.

And it stopped, it all stopped, the blood, the pain, the visions, all it ceased as if never having been real. Being aware of that, Sasuke ran over to the fallen Konohamaru. "Are you alright?"

Konohamaru nodded, his Chakra slowly reducing at the sight of Sasuke. "I saw something, it was Reedamaru--"

"Konohamaru, slow down." Sasuke wrapped his arms around the boy's waist and lifted him on to his feet. Taking notice of his heavy panting and racing heart, he even felt sweat starting to form. "It's alright now, take it easy...What did you say?"

Konohamaru stopped for a moment to catch his breath and try to calm himself. "I saw Reedamaru, he killed a woman, and a lot of other people too. There was blood, it was everywhere..."

Sasuke watched Konohamaru carefully, noticing that he was shaking slightly, and it was becoming harder by the second. He sighed as he looked Konohamaru in the eye "You have to stay strong, we can beat this thing." He said, placing a hand on Konohamaru's shoulder "We're demon hunters remember, we can do this."

""Yeah your right." Konohamaru clinched the weapons in his fist tightly to steady his hands and he stared into the red eyes. Seeing that Sharingan always made him feel a little at ease since the only people who had it were Itachi and Sasuke. "We were going up to the library right? Let's go then."

Sasuke smirked as he climbed up to his feet. "Alright then."

! - ! - !

"So I see." Neji looked over Sasuke and Konohamaru, easily finding evidence of their clams from the blood that covered them. "You say it's just Chakra right, but it's doing all of this, moving around on it's own, appearing and reappearing."

"Uh-huh." Konohamaru nodded. "And it's after me, it keeps calling me Reedamaru."

Neji sat down at his desk, glancing down at the books surrounding his study. He didn't have to research this matter at all, knowing as much as he did about demons he easily could tell them what was happening. "What keeps attacking you isn't a demon Konohamaru, not entirely at lest. And you say it keeps showing you things, visions of people being killed by this Reedamaru that it keeps calling you?"

"Yeah."

"This chakra your seeing is a form of people killed by this Reedamaru person, apparently they all were very angry and hateful towards Reedamaru for murdering them. This doesn't often happen but that hate and anger was strong enough to leave behind something of them, pooled chakra, and create the demon you keep seeing. And because of the hate and anger that created it, it's out for Reedamaru. But what doesn't make sense is why it's coming after you instead of Reedamaru."

"I don't know either, but...uh...Reedamaru's probably dead." Konohamaru rubbed the back of his head nervously, hoping that they would believe him and not ask questions about it.

"That's a possibility, and it would explain what's going on." Neji said "But for it to come after you, then you would have to be related to Reedamaru, something close like a brother or a son." Neji stopped, looking back at Konohamaru. "Reedamaru must be related to you, he has to be."

"Are you sure?" Konohamaru asked, he couldn't imagine a person like Reedamaru being his relative, and not knowing about it.

"I'm sure of it, there's no other reason this demon would be after you."

'Really...But how? Wait who was he then?' Konohamaru would have to ask Itachi and Kisame, they would have to know something about him since...wait, something was missing...Konohamaru looked down at himself. "Hey, my scarf's gone!" Konohamaru looked around, he couldn't have dropped it up here, he hadn't even felt it since they came from downstairs "Oh man, it's gotta be downstairs." Konohamaru sighed, though adamant about going back their was no way he'd leave his favorite possession in the whole world behind. So he wasted no time turning around and running back.

"Konohamaru?" Sasuke hadn't expected him to be so quick about it, he hadn't expected him to even go back. "Konohamaru wait." Sasuke unhesitantly left Neji behind and ran through the rows of books toward the door at the end of the room and after Konohamaru. And just as his body got past the frame, the heavy doors softly closed and locked behind him. "!" Sasuke stopped and looked back. "No.." intuition prompted him to check it, he knew that couldn't be a coincidence. He tried to push the door open again, and it wouldn't move inch. "Konohamaru stop!"

Konohamaru was abruptly brought to a halt when the door leading to the main hallway and his scarf slammed just in his face, knocking him back on to the ground. "Awww..." He rubbed his forehead, finding himself flat on his back with what he was sure was going to form a bruise. "Hey, what--" Konohamaru was stopped mid-sentence by the feel of sudden wetness against him. He didn't even have time to look back before water rose from the ground above over his head. "!"

He couldn't believe it, this water was coming from out of nowhere and so quickly. Konohamaru's first thought was to swim to the door that had just slammed in his face, but something was there, blocking his way. It was a person, the same one he saw in that cloudy image shown by the mirror in the bathroom before, and just as before he couldn't see it clearly, the lights started flickering .

"!" Konohamaru panicked to get away in a scrambling furry, only he felt something grabbing his legs. Konohamaru looked down, though he was unable to see anything because of the lack of light. 'Let me go! Let me go!' Konohamaru tried to swim against it, but he wasn't strong enough...That thought triggered his Chakra to resurface in one large burst, filtering into his arms, his legs, his torso and each and every muscle, a strength increasing measure that happened to Konohamaru when he panicked.

With more power , Konohamaru kicked and struggled at what bound him, finding himself running out of air quickly. 'Let...go!' Konohamaru drew back the Kunai in his hand, connected with Chakra rope, and tossed it down towards the ground. Immediately the unseen force that held him released it's grip and Konohamaru swam furiously through the dim waters towards Sasuke a flight above him who seemed to have been having a similar problem.

Konohamaru moved past him at a furious rate, rising to the surface about 5 feet above Sasuke with a desperate gasp for air. "Sasuke!" He looked around, he was sure he'd seem Sasuke right behind him. "Sasuke! Where are--" A strong and sudden current jerked him to the left hard. Konohamaru looked and saw that the library doors opening, and Sasuke's body being drawn in to the next room. Konohamaru expected it to be pulled in with him, but he wasn't, his body was slammed against the wall hard enough to knock the little air he had remaining in his lungs. "Sasuke!" He could only watch helplessly as the large doors slammed shut again, leaving him completely isolated.

! - ! - !

Sasuke hit the ground in a large loud splash, coughing loudly and expelling as much water as he could from his lungs. He sat up slowly as Neji ran to his side from where he had been working. "What happened?"

"It's after Konohamaru again." Sasuke coughed again and wiped the water from his eyes with his forearm. Using the door he knew wouldn't open as support, he climbed to his feet, quickly shifting his use of the door knob from supportive and resistant. "Everything's flooded, it's trying to drown him."

"Drown?" Neji grabbed on the second door knob and tried to pry it open "How?"

"I don't know, it's just creating things from nowhere. First the walls were bleeding, now water's coming out of nowhere."

"What? These types of demons can't create things like that..." Neji paused "Unless it's recreating a situation that's happened to it before...Konohamaru said he kept seeing Reedamaru kill people, the only way this could be happening is if it's recreating the situations Reedamaru killed a victim in."

"What about Konohamaru!" Sasuke growled angrily, unnoticing as the curse seal farther crept along the side his face, over his shoulders and down his other arm. His eyes shifted into the blood red of his level 2 Sharingan.

"I don't know." Neji took a step back, peering at the door through his white eyes, surrounding veins made themselves known as he activated his own bloodline Bakyugan. All he saw was darkness, at first at least, his Bakyugan begin to pierce the black Chakra... "Oh no...We have to get out there and warn him!" Neji kicked the door, failing and stepping back to kick it again.

The red eyes of the Uchiha boy turned on him quickly, "What? Warn him about what?"

"Konohamaru's using a lot of Chakra, and that's what it wants him to do. Don't you get it, It's absorbing his Chakra and feeding off his fear, then it's going to kill him."

"What! Konohamaru!"

! - ! - !

Konohamaru pushed himself off of the wall as he swam on top of the surface of the water. Just before him lay of stairway the led upstairs to a 3rd that hadn't been completed yet, and his only way out. So Konohamaru swam towards it, and just before he reached the first step of the next flight, the lights blew out loudly. "!" Konohamaru looked around frantically, but only thing there was the sound of him displacing water.

"Die, Reedamaru."

Two hands grabbed on to his head and pushed him down into the water, he nearly gasped but he barely retained himself. His eyes widened to dark waters and he started failing wildly, He held the two Kunai's in his hands tightly enough to bruise, and once again his Chakra made itself visible in a yellow pulsing light. Konohamaru dove the golden Chakra lined kunais upward into the hands that bound him and they immediately let go. Now free, Konohamaru scrambled to the surface, frantically turning back to see his attacker and finding nothing but the water.

His visibility demised to zero as the light from his Chakra dimmed and brightened again, and to his shock the water had become thick and red, blood red just that quickly. "No..." Konohamaru turned around towards the stairs as his Chakra pulsed in a quick dim and a return to light, unveiling more of the thick red liquid, he was surrounding, he was standing in it! "No! Stop it!"

"Reedamaru. Suffer."

Konohamaru turned around just as his Charka dimmed, he drove the metal Kunai outward. He felt it connect with something, his Chakra brightened showing the shadowy, distorted form of this creature and the blood around him before dimming again. "Stop it!"

"Reedamaru!"

Konohamaru turned back again, jumping from the thick liquid and thrust the Kunais forward towards the sound of the voice as his Chakra brightened. He found himself staring a demon pup right in it's red eyes. The fox whipped around quickly... "Ahaaaa--Uhuff!" Konohamaru was sent flying backwards from three tails slamming into him, he slammed into the wall hard enough to leave in imprint, then sliding down into the blood again.

He'd forgotten how high it reached, until it rose over his head and he was completely submerged in it, he couldn't tell his blood from some one else's. '!' That's when he started to panic. His eyes shot open, only to be stung by the crimson liquid, he coughed, filling his mouth with blood that wasn't his own. It took all of his will power not to spit it back out, if he did that he knew he'd gasp and inhale. His mind was so frantic that could barely think, he had to get out, he had to get away! He tried to push himself upward but a paw slammed down on his chest, knocking the wind out of him, forcing more blood into his mouth, and pinning him down hard enough to leave a bruise.

'No!'

His Chakra pulsed faster and faster, moving in time with his heartbeat like a measurement of his fear. As his heartbeat pounded faster and harder so did this chakra, giving him quick flashes of light from behind his closed eyes. His lungs screamed for air and it seemed like the only thing he could do was flail and struggle against the demon fox. 'No! I can't...breathe...'

It seemed like he would pass out, or have a heart attack, but it became aware to him that his fear would prevent him from losing conscious. His mind raced though nothing seemed to come useful, expect for two things, Kisame yelling at him to stop being afraid and fight back, and Sasuke telling him to be strong. That's when he realized he still had the metal kunais in his hand.

'I...have too...'

With a loud growl, Konohamaru thrust both of them upward into the fox's head and his pulsing Chakra erupted into a steady light. The pressure was so great that his chest felt like it would explode.

! - ! - !

"Chidori!" Sasuke drew his arm back, covered in the markings of the curse seal, and thrust the lighting Jutsu into the door. Sparks and bolts discharged everywhere surrounding him, then faded away.

"Koseichi Chudan no Jutsu." Neji clinched a shrunken tightly in his hand, watching smoke rise from the steel as he pushed his charka upward into it. Then the threw it swiftly at the blocked door, watching it detonate in an eruption of flames. Though none of it seemed effective. But he looked deeper with his Bakyugan, "It's working, I think we're about to breakthrough..."

Neji stopped, then glanced at Sasuke. "Wait...do you see that?"

Sasuke nodded "Konohamaru's using way to much, at this rate he'll kill himself."

"Yeah but... That's an immense amount, at this rate he'll--"

The whole wall suddenly exploded, sending Neji and Sasuke flying backwards in a rush of yellow charka, concrete, and blood. Seemingly tons of the red liquid rushed into the library and on to the two, though the amount that actually reached back into the bookshelves was small. It was more then enough to put out the flames that had been spawned.

Konohamaru coughed out the blood he'd inhaled, soaked from head to toe in it he couldn't stop himself from shaking. He couldn't even breathe. What made matters even worse was that he was pinned down by the body of the nine-tail's pup he'd just killed, and this time he didn't have the strength to pull it off of him. He could barely move. And he couldn't deny the fact that something was happening.

He could see the black Chakra floating above him, and it was pulling on him like a suction. He saw what it was pulling when he felt the very last of his Chakra siphoning out of his body and in to the dark haze. The black smoke like mass started to descend, taking the form of that shadowy and undistinguishable person. More Chakra, yellow Chakra, Konohamaru's Chakra that it'd been absorbing all of this time started to radiate around it. That's when it really started to take form.

The dark haze lifted, revealing a truly demonic body. It was dark, nearly black, and it had the most haunting black eyes with red pupils, it was just a few inches taller then he was. Short wings with black feathers extended from it's back, and Konohamaru could just make out claws on the shadowy form. It lifted the claws above it's head. "Die, Reedamaru!" It's voice was a thunderous growl, furious and hateful, it didn't seem like such a small body could make such a sound, Konohamaru flinched at the voice as it thrust the claws down at --

"Not today!" From behind Kiba came rushed the demon, ramming it with his shoulder and sending it flying over Sasuke and Neji. "Are you ok Konohamaru?" Kiba kicked the demon fox's body off of the boy and picked him up by his shoulders.

"I...think so." Konohamaru said weakly, he was dizzy and everything was spinning. He'd used too much Chakra, more then his body could handle giving. "I need to sit down." Before he even noticed it he'd fallen back against Kiba's leg.

"Whoa...that's kinda creepy." Kiba watched as the Fear demon's body dissipated into a cloud of black smoke. "The hell was that?"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Wow..." Kakashi sat down on the flight of stairs leading to the unfinished third floor, staring at demolished wall. "Konohamaru, what do you have against walls? Or you just thought some redecorating was in order."

Konohamaru looked down on him from 2 steps above, feeling weak and a little disoriented but wide awake. Despite it only being 6 in the morning he wasn't quite ready to head to bed, not after sleeping all of yesterday. "It wasn't like that!"

"I like it, it gives that open feel."

Sasuke ascended from the flight below, after a shower and a change of clothes "Don't pay attention to him, you'll just encourage him."

"Oww, that hurt." Kakashi wined.

Kiba glanced back at them, then held his head down again as he sat in the pile of rubble that used to be the wall. "If this keeps up, we won't have any money left. I mean come on! We haven't even finished the third floor!"

"Is anyone else worried about the fact that this place was built on top of the blood of people in a mass murder?" Naruto sat down against a bookshelf next to Gaara, watching the remains of the wall smolder. "I just noticed something, is anyone here that is _not_ being hunted by a demon?"

There was a small pause, then a short silence.

"You can't be serious." Naruto said. "Man, we've got problems. What about Akamaru, dose he count?"

"Nope." Kiba shook his head, though Akamaru had a tight grip so that he wouldn't fall. "Bugs."

There was another small pause between them, until Neji emerged from the back of the room a book in hand with Iruka following behind with a scroll Neji had created. "Good, everyone's here." Neji sat the book on the ground and knelt by it "I found something very interesting, a Jutsu."

Naruto shrugged "So."

"It's something that can useful." Neji said. "And since Naruto bluntly pointed out that we all are having problems with demons, very strong demons, some of which are constantly growing increasingly stronger."

"So what is this Jutsu?" Kakashi asked.

"It's called Overclocking, it allows the body to reach it's limits of current potential."

"So what's the side effect, there is always a catch to this type of thing."

"Your right, there is." Neji agreed. "But it's different for each person who uses, there's one accounted for someone's fingernails stopped growing, to someone who stopped breathing."

"So if we use this, we're basically playing Russian roulette with ourselves." Sasuke leaned against the wall next to Konohamaru. "What are the chances of something harmful resulting?"

"50/50."

Naruto snorted. "That's not Russian roulette, that's an attempt at suicide."

"Your forgetting that something _harmful_ could be something simple." Gaara reminded him "It could be loosening a hair."

"I think we should learn it." Neji said decidedly "Possibly for an emergency or desperate situation."

"I say we go for it." Kiba nodded. "Last time we fought those bugs, we were nearly killed. If we get in to that situation again we're probably gonna die anyway, why not take the risk?"

Neji took a look around. "So everyone's decided?" He got some type of affirmative response from everyone, it was clearly seen that Overclocking could be a useful skill. Setting aside the fact that it was from a demon book, and it was a demon technique, and there was the risk of serious injury. "It's decided then."


	17. Chapter 17: Remember Me

Chapter 17: Remember Me

Kiba shifted in stirred frantically in the bed, his body tangled in the ripped and torn sheets and keeping him in a constricting hold. He moaned lightly in pain, biting down on something in his sleep, and panting violently. Sweat streamed off of his body in substantial amounts though he was cold, and an arching pain streaked through him. Even in his dreams he felt dizzy, and his head pounded with a throbbing headache.

Finally his eyes shot open but quickly closed again and a loud, animalistic roar tore from his throat in the place of what should have been a yell. Kiba immediately lifted his hands and clinched his forehead tightly as his face cringed up. "Owww, what the hell." he said out loud, he found it surprisingly hard to keep his hands in place and even to sit upright from his entanglement in the strips of tattered white cloth surrounding him.

He opened his eyes again and looked down at himself, his eyes widened slightly and his ears twitched and perked in surprise...perk? Human ears didn't do that. With that realization Kiba lifted his hands to where his ears should have been, when he didn't find them there he panicked and he felt around frantically for them . "What the hell! Where are my--" Kiba brushed against something on the top of his head and he clinched on to it, something furry. "What is this?"

Kiba ripped the torn sheets off of him and he scrambled out of his bed, opening the door to his room and running down the still damaged hallway to the fully repaired bathroom. He almost fell when he came on to the tile floors but he saved himself by grabbing on to the sink and sliding to a stop. Kiba looked upon his appearance in the mirror above the sink, finding furry gray wolf ears on the top of his head, protruding over the unruly black hair. Fangs now hung in his mouth, both of them long enough to just barely become visible over his bottom lip, and claws now protruded from fingers and toes. What was one of the more noticeable features was a bushy gray tail originating from his lower back "Holy crap! I'm a dog!"

Some how during that, Kiba noticed something, almost like an instinct. Tearing himself away from the mirror, Kiba walked over to the window and pushed away the curtains. He ended up staring into a large blue moon, larger then he'd ever seen, so large it made his eyes grow wide at the sight "Whoa..." he felt the irrepressible urge to howl.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The sun slowly began to ascend from below the horizon, providing some light for Naruto's team who were posted around SDI. Naruto stood on the roof or rather the unfinished third floor. Now it was just a flat surface with steel beams surrounding it like a cage, Naruto was posted on one on the north side, looking around alertly. Gaara would have been west if he wasn't still recovering, Kakashi stood east, and Iruka was opposite Naruto on the roof.

"This is no use!" Naruto called out, staring upward at the distant figures of 3 birds circulating around them like buzzards ready to swoop down and seize it's scavenge. "I can't even hit them, they're too fast."

"It looks like it's up to you Iruka." Kakashi abandoned his post on the east side to jump up on the roof .

"Huh?" Iruka glanced back "What can I do? You know my Jutsus"

Kakashi placed his hands in his pocket and stared upward at the distant figures of circulating birds "Your the most skilled with wind based Jutsu, and that's the only way we're going to get at them."

"But I don't have nearly enough power to do this on my own." Iruka said nervously.

"I'll help you out." Kakashi placed his hands on Iruka's back "Better start, Looks like they're getting ready to attack." Kakashi could see the tree circulating bird's formation loosening, a clear sign something would happen soon.

"I'll try." Iruka nodded to himself and began doing the hand seals to his most familiar and mastered Jutsu, one that he'd used primarily and often modified "Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" Iruka lifted the 5-point, his most frequently used weapon, holding it out to his side while holding his other hand upward to the sky. A blast of air rushed upward from in a torrent, one that Iruka struggled to stand while it was barring down him.

Kakashi held his free arm outward while generating chakra, causing streaks of lighting to draw up from the ground into his palm with the growing energy of the lightning edge. Cautiously watching the three birds dive down from above toward them carefully, their shadowy forms grew larger with each second they descended. They were much larger then they first appeared, easily their bodies large enough to expand over the SDI building. "Naruto."

Naruto held one hand outward, waving the other over it in a circular motion with focused Chakra. It became visible in a blue swirl, and Naruto continued to poor more Chakra into his Rasengan. "I'm ready!"

"Iruka."

Iruka nodded and began spinning the large 5-point shrunken with his hand, and while it was still rotating Iruka pulled it upward and into the current of destructive air. Kakashi drew his hand upward and drove the lighting edge on to the bottom of the 5-point, then Naruto threw the Rasengan just above the metal weapon. The 3 forces combined, the Rasengan increasing the rotation of the 5-point and giving the wind an over all drill like spin, while the lighting edge gave every it a more destructive force of electricity , and the 5-point held that charge. All of it melded together to become one large blast that looked like a wall.

The birds fell out of the sun's glare and allowed themselves to be seen completely, they were Ravens, and large ones at that. All 3 of them were diving downward to swoop in and take out them and the building in one attack, and from the looks of their beaks they probably could do it fairly easily. Which meant this couldn't miss.

"I...can't hold it like this." Iruka called out in a strained voice, with his arms faltering from pushing up the blast with his wind Jutsu. "I don't have enough Charka to hit all three."

"Don't worry, I have you." Kakashi held on to Iruka's arms and concentrated on transferring Chakra, the support seemed to be working. "They're all coming in at once, you can take them out with one shot."

"I'll try... Retsu ha geki no Jutsu Full power!" The current of wind coming from Iruka's hands doubled, he held his arms strait as he stared up into the 3 pairs of red eyes glaring down on him from the approaching demons. They were so close now that the ground started to shake as they all swooped down from the east, two side by side and one above them. 'Now!' Iruka turned and thrust his arms to the left, forcing the 5-point carrying the blast directly in-between the three Ravens.

Electricity slashed at the three as the tarring winds with the oversized weapon and Rasengan ripped the wings from the two side by side and forcing them to veer to opposite side and hit the ground roughly in a trail of blood. The pair had been forced over just enough to slide right past SDI, while the third that had wounds to it's underside glided right them close enough so that Naruto had to dive off the steel beam to avoid the large demon. It crashed to a stop nearby.

"That was great." Konohamaru said, emerging from the usually locked stairway from the 2 floor. "Did you kill it?"

Naruto jumped back on to the steel beam and looked over the 3 demon bodies. Then turned back with a victorious smirk. "Pretty sure."

"That was the third attack this week." Kakashi let go of Iruka and stepped back. "I'm not sure different breeds usually cohabit, but they seem to be working together against us."

"They don't." Iruka looked through the steel beams as he headed for the stairs where Konohamaru was standing "It's disturbing. I'm not sure what to make of it except for a general hate. Do they think we're that much of a threat that different species come after us together?"

! - ! - !

"Neji!"

Neji was training near the familiar waterfall a few miles off from SDI, it'd become a spot for resting among everyone, it seemed to be the only trace of Konoha forest since it was the only place with trees in a 68 mile radius. In fact he was sure he'd seen Gaara someplace nearby, probably above.

'Kiba?' Neji glanced back from his spot nearby where he'd been training, all of a sudden he was sprang on and knocked to the ground from some unknown weight. He found himself staring up at Kiba and usually would have scolded him for doing something like that but his mind was else where "W-what happened to you?"

"I don't know." Kiba climbed off of Neji, Akamaru on his head between the two newly sprouted ears. "I woke up last night and I was like this."

"Last night, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Oh well...I was looking for you but I got really hungry." Kiba flashed a smirked allowing his fangs to be seen as he placed his hand on his stomach "But I was even more sleepy then I was hungry so I fell asleep again." That sounded like Kiba, at least he'd only changed on the outside, that much was apparent.

"These just grew over night?" Neji stood behind Kiba, poking and his ears "Dose this hurt?"

"Not really."

Neji reached down and examined his tail, but it immediately started to wag out of his grip, Kiba couldn't help it. When Neji grabbed his tail he got excited, or at least his body got jumpy. Moving on from the tail, Neji took hold of Kiba's wrist and examined the small yet visible claws that had formed on his fingers. "Maybe that werewolf did something to you after all..."

"I told you!" Kiba said, clinching his head with his hands again "I turning into a werewolf!"

! - ! - !

"Whoa, down boy." Kakashi sat down on the ground against the wall, watching Kiba pace around the Library.

"I'm a werewolf!" Kiba shouted.

"How?" Naruto asked, "Hey wait! You've been a werewolf all this time and didn't tell me."

"Don't be stupid dobe." Sasuke snorted "It must have happened on a mission."

"I'm not sure what's going on, but you should try and calm down." Iruka said, though still confused about the whole thing. "Being this excited might just make things worse."

Kiba took a deep breath and decided Iruka was right, being this worked up wouldn't help. "I knew something would happen after that demon bit me." Kiba sat down on Lee's safe sitting right outside of the door to Neji's study, and held his head in his hands.

Kakashi looked upon the boy curiously "I could never resist a pouting dog." He earned a look and a growl from Kiba. "I love nin dogs."

Neji emerged from the rows of books just in time, Kiba was _strongly_ tempted to bite Kakashi. "I found something on it, though it's vague in some parts it still might help." He said, holding a new book he'd acquired yesterday "One of two things happen after something is bitten by a werewolf demon, if it's a compatible species then it mutates, if not it will eventually die. Human is a compatible species, so yes you are a werewolf now."

"Great! Now I'm going to get all big and furry." He wined "So how long do I have till I'm a big, drooling wolf demon?"

"Calm down, your mutation isn't necessarily going to go that far." Neji said.

"What about the moon, the moon was full last night, I'm sure that had something to do with it."

"Yes it did." Neji agreed. "And it looks like your current sate could be permanent, and after tonight you could very well be a drooling wolf demon as you put it. But we can stop that from happening."

"How?"

"Sealing Jutsu, a complicated one that's not permanent. But even if we do attempt it and fail and you do transform completely, since your human you'll change back...eventually."

Kiba sighed, or at lest he tried too but it came out as a canine winning sound.

"This is just too much." Kakashi laughed "I'll have to pick Neji up a collar and leach."

Kiba growled again, now really close to biting Kakashi. "Look on the bright side." Neji said "You look really cute."

"What am I going to do! There's a full moon tonight."

! - ! - !

Konohamaru sat in the center of the shrine, his eyes rolling over each forehead protector that sat below an individual flame. Taking an extra second to look particularly at the two with the lines carved through it, one of them from the hidden Mist village which had drawn some curios attention from others. He closed his eyes again, trying to focus on sitting in this one spot in this one moment in time, Kakashi told him he needed to learn how to focus better. What better way then to meditate on one thing for as long as he could?

So he practiced stirring his Chakra, releasing small amounts from the points Itachi showed him while he rotated the ki inside of him. "MMmmmmm..." His face tensed and his fist tightened as he tried to move faster then usual, but he knew he was doing it wrong when he felt a ripping and burning like pain.

Kisame watched the Yellow chakra rotate around Konohamaru's body like a whirlpool, he had so much of it and could barely use it, or handle it for that matter. "Your Chakra looks damaged, what happened to you?"

Konohamaru flinched, the chakra he'd been rotating expelled outward from his body in one golden flash that made the flames flicker. "Boss?" Konohamaru turned back "I thought you said you were coming back!" He yelled angrily.

"Business." Kisame sat down next to Konohamaru "What happened to your Chakra."

"Well...that thing came back and attacked me. It was draining my Chakra all along and it somehow used that to change, it has a body now." Konohamaru shuttered at the thought, it was an experience he wanted to forget. "I found out what it was." He said "All those people Reedamaru killed, they hated him enough to create a demon with it even after they died. Neji-sama said the only reason it would come after me even when Reedamaru died already was if I was related to him."

"..." Kisame sighed, he knew Reedamaru was related to Konohamaru, he just never imagined that something like this could result from it. It was a pretty unusual situation. "Reedamaru is your father."

Konohamaru usually would have been surprised by it, but he wasn't, he just held his head down "He's really my father?...Did he know?"

Kisame nodded solemnly "Yes, he knew."

"And he still...came after me?"

"Yes."

Konohamaru just sat quietly, thinking. "...But he's dead, isn't that what it wanted? I don't have anything to do with him, why is it coming after me?"

"I'm not sure, I guess it was unsatisfied with his death."

"But that's unfair!" Konohamaru jumped to his feet angrily. "That evil bastard didn't even care about me! He wouldn't care what happens to me anyway! Why dose it want to kill me for what _he_ did!"

Kisame folded his arms and closed his eyes in an almost relaxed manner, though he was clearly not. "Calm down kid."

"He didn't care what happened to me, why do I have to pay for all those people he killed?" Konohamaru shouted "Why do I have to go through this for what he did!"

"Konohamaru! Calm down." Kisame said firmly " I know it isn't fair and this shouldn't be happening to you, I know you don't deserve it. I told you life was a bitch, you just have to deal with it."

"...Your right!" Konohamaru growled angrily. "If I'm going to be Hokage then I can't let something like this standing in my way! I'm going to defeat Fear!"

! - ! - !

"He said I have to calm down...alright, then I'll calm down." Kiba jumped through the tree tops, moving from branch to branch fast enough for him to be a blur, his hood was down and Akamaru was tucked inside against his chest. He was moving more agilely, and his landings and take offs were tighter, he had more of a sense of balance. All of this could be nothing other but an effect of his transformation. 'I hope Neji can figure this seal, what's going to happen to me if I do change completely?' He couldn't stop thinking about it, he'd never been so worried in his life!

"Stop--"

_Crash_

Kiba slammed into something -- no, someone else hard. Hard enough to send the both of them sprawling down from the trees and on to the ground roughly. "Awww..."

"Kiba." Shino pushed Kiba off of him and set him down on the ground next to him. "Kiba you should pay--...What...what happened to you?" Shino stood up, picked up his sunglasses off the ground and returning them to his eyes as he rose, a faint hint of surprise visible on his stoic face.

Kiba rubbed his head and smirked "Well uh...I'll be strait with you, a werewolf bit me."

"Your kidding aren't you?" Shino inquired. "What is that, a costume?" Shino reached out and felt Kiba's ears curiously.

"Dose this look like a costume?" Kiba moved his tail around, twitching his ears slightly under Shino's fingers. "I'm serious."

"Hmmm, it must be difficult working at SDI." Shino leaned against a tree, his hands resting in his pocket. "I imagined there would be injuries and associated risks, but something like this..."

"How'd you know I was at SDI?" Kiba looked up at him questingly, guessing that it was now officially SDI instead of D.S.I.

"It wasn't too hard to figure out, besides, where else would someone inquire an affliction such as that?" Shino said. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I have no idea... but right now I'm alright." Kiba glanced down at his claws forlornly, worried. "Later I might not be."

"I'm not worried, If your strong enough to do a job like that then I'm sure your strong enough to pull out of this." Shino seemed to be doing his best to try and give encouragement, he obviously wasn't very good at it but he was trying, and that's what counted.

"Yeah...Thanks Shino." Kiba took a deep breath and stood up, "You have to admit it is kind of cool."

Shino just smirked and walked past him.

Kiba looked back at him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm meeting someone."

Kiba shrugged "I guess I'll leave you to it then." With a blur, Kiba disappeared in a continuous effort to calm down. Taking a walk always seemed to help.

Shino watched him leave, waiting patiently. He was ready and waiting when he felt two familiar hands pushing him against the same tree by his shoulders forcefully and soft lips roughly pressing against his. "Your late Kankuro."

"Your early." Kankuro pulled back just far enough for his lips to smirk.

! - ! - !

Kiba marveled at how they'd managed to clean away the bodies of three large demons in such a short time, he suspected fire. And he saw some construction happening on the third floor, it seemed as though it was finally going to be completed soon.

With another deep breath he opened the front door and walked inside the lobby, finding it empty as usual, except for Gaara. Who also recently returned by the look of his appearance, he'd probably been training. "Neji has the seal ready." Gaara said, sitting down on the couch and setting his gourd to the side. "He's waiting for you in the back."

Kiba nodded and headed out the lobby, heading down the hall and cutting through the armory and out the back yard to get behind the building. Neji was there just as Kiba had said, waiting with a scroll in hand "Kiba."

"So you got this figured out?" Kiba asked, his the tip of his tail trailing along the soft grass.

"Pretty much." Neji untied the scroll and held it in his mouth, pressing one hand on to Kiba's stomach and the taking the scroll out of his mouth with the other. He unrolled it and flicked it outward, then he wrapped it around Kiba's torso. "MetaSeal!" The text on the seal started to glow in a red light, the scroll started to extend and wrap around his torso, his legs, his arms.

"Whoa..."

Neji started performing a barely learned hand seal with all of the speed he could gather. Then he pressed both hands on to a large circle on the scroll in the center of Kiba's chest, making the light grow more intense and the scroll grow tighter and tighter... until it ripped and fell into a mass down at Kiba's feet. "It...it failed."

"Failed?" A word he didn't want to hear "Failed? What dose that mean?"

"The seal didn't work, there's nothing I can do." Neji fell back and sit down on the ground "It didn't work."

"So...I'm going to change completely?" Kiba looked up in disbelief, he never thought it wouldn't work. "Is there anything else you can do?"

Neji shook his head, "Just wait and see what happens."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Naruto walked into the familiar setting of Gaara's room, marveling at how much change had taken place in two weeks after Nightmare attacked him. Gaara had used a good portion of his salary on one thing, music, and now the once bare, empty room was now covered with CDs. Spread across ever dresser and stacked in just about every corner as so not to create clutter. "Hey Gaara..." Naruto looked around the room, he was sure Gaara was in here. "Where are you?"

Sand began to leak down from the ceiling on to Naruto's head, followed by Gaara who was suddenly hanging upside down, face to face with Naruto.

"Whaaaaa!" Naruto fell backwards, hitting his head against the ground "Ow."

Gaara pushed the headphones off of his ears up around his neck, he was standing upside down on the ceiling "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Where'd you come from?" Naruto took the hand Gaara outstretched and pulled himself on to his feet. "I know I didn't see you."

Sand began to drop down from around Gaara in large amounts until his body disappeared and he was suddenly right side up on the ground where the sand had fallen. "Something I learned when I was fighting Nightmare. I can better control my body and the sand by concentration and desire." Being the first person to ever out will an survive Nightmare greatly increased his concentration, of course he had help, and a high motivation.

"That is really cool." Naruto smirked, "So what are you doing?"

Gaara jumped in the air, doing into a backflip high enough that his feet touched the ceiling. Then he used his chakra to bind them to it so that he was standing upside down again. "Training." He pulled the headphones over his ears and before more sand started to form around him, then his body disappeared and the sand seemed to sink into the ceiling. Leaving him with nothing but Shukaku's intent taking over, blaring music, concentration and desire, possibly the only three things keeping Shukaku from corrupting him.

"Training eh? Great idea, let's train together." Naruto said "How about me and you have a quick spar right here?"

Gaara dropped down right behind him, "Fine, but your guard is down."

"Heh heh, No I isn't " Naruto through his elbow back on to Gaara, but Gaara caught it and twisted Naruto's arm behind his back. Naruto through his head back into Gaara's before his body went up in a cloud of smoke.

"A copy?"

"Damn right!" Naruto sprang on him from behind and wrapped his arms around Gaara's neck

! - ! - !

"I think I know what it is." Konohamaru said.

"What?"

"That demon that attacked Sasuke and Itachi. It's the same type of demon that Fear is, after what Itachi did it has to be."

Kisame nodded "Figured as much, how else could it get those eyes, and it couldn't be a coincidence that it looks like their father."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Neji waited silently, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed and his arms folded. It was 1'o clock in the morning now, and everyone else had given up on waiting and headed to sleep. Now it was just him trying to stay awake. He stared out of the window along the opposite wall, watching the large blue moon surrounded by darkness and shining stars, he'd noticed many times that the moon appeared larger then usual, much larger.

Neji hadn't noticed his eyelids were falling shut, and his folded arms were starting to loosen, before long he fell over completely unconscious.

Kiba shifted along the ground slightly, his body curling in to a tight ball on the hardwood floor. Sleeping there by choice, and with out covers or a shirt because he'd been was hot. That heat had become very uncomfortable, to the point where his breathing was being effected and he had to pant. His claws clinched at his arms tightly enough to draw blood and he was trying to curl deeper though he could go no farther. His locked jaws let out a small growl...then his eyes shot open his mouth opened widened, followed by a howl. One unnoticed by Neji.

_Rrroooaaaarrrrr_

Neji heard that clearly, clearly enough to awaken him, which is when he realized he'd fallen asleep. "Kiba?" Neji sat up and opened his eyes, they quickly grew wide at the sight. "Kiba!"

The other boy really had transformed just like it said in the book, a complete werewolf. Gray fur matching his ears and tail now spawned over his body completely, his face was completely wolf like with a long nose and mouth, now filled with fangs. His pants managed to stay in one piece during the transformation, it couldn't have been easy since Kiba had grown visibly taller then Neji by a good number of inches, as well as new muscles forming in about every part of his body. The claws on his fingers grew longer, as well as the ones on his toes which were much bigger, he also stood with his heels lifted off the ground.

Kiba threw his head back with mouth wide and let out a howl that echoed through the halls, then he slowly advanced towards Neji with a menacing intent "Kiba--" Claws tore at his chest, followed by a strong punch to his forehead by a much larger fist then before, sending Neji flying backwards into the wall. In a blur of gray, Kiba was in front of him, holding him by the neck 'His speed...it's incredible.' Neji barely had time to think about it, Kiba drew his hand back and swiped at his head. Neji lifted his arm and blocked, sending a kick into Kiba's stomach that knocked him backwards on the ground.

"This isn't you, I know your in there somewhere!" Neji pushed himself off the imprinted wall and ran over to the fallen werewolf. Kiba sprang up on all fours, running towards Neji with a speed faster then before, and slashing him across the chest, Neji slid backwards a few feet but steadied himself enough to stay standing. "!" Neji flipped forward, kicking Kiba in the chin who was attacking from behind, then turning back as soon as he landed and punching him in the stomach while he was still in mid-air. Kiba fell backwards but landed on his feet, immediately coming at Neji again.

Kiba drew his arm back as he dived forward then slammed his open palm into Neji's face forcefuly , but he grabbed hold of his head before he could be knocked back. With his claws digging in to the side of the boy's face, Kiba landed and slammed him into the wall, hard enough to throw him through completely.

'He's so strong now, and fast.' Neji reached upward before his body could leave the building completely, and he used that momentum to flip upward in to the air and land on the uncompleted third floor. 'I don't think I can beat him like this.' Neji glanced between the protruding steel beams down toward the hole, and found Kiba coming towards him. Only he was using his claws to climb up the wall, and quite effectively too. 'Damnit, I don't want to hurt him but what choice do I have? He's so persistent.'

Kiba jumped upward from the wall in a gray blur, diving down from the dark sky over the tall steel girders with his right arm and claws outward. Neji crouched down just in time for Kiba's claws to graze over the top of his head and cut off a few strands of hair 'He was going for my neck...' Neji stood up and turn around just before the werewolf landed on his feet and growled fiercely. "Kiba! You have to snap out of this!"

Kiba didn't seem to care what he was saying, instead he clasped his hands together in a very quick hand seal, followed by another roar. Neji found ice creeping up his leg 'He dose Jutsus too. When did Kiba learn an ice Jutsu.' Neji kicked his way from the entrapment and jumped upward as Kiba lunged at him again, then he landed on Kiba's back with a stomp hard enough to force him to the ground. Kiba rolled over, catching Neji by the shoulders and pressing him against the ground.

Neji looked up into those familiar brown eyes, the only thing that hadn't changed, they were so distant, impersonal... and slowly mutating more and more the longer Kiba stayed in this form. 'He...doesn't even remember me..' "Kiba!" Neji shouted "It's me, Neji."

Kiba didn't hesitate, he just leaned down to bite his neck, Neji drove his foot upward and kicked Kiba off of him. "I know your in there somewhere." Neji rolled to his side and climbed to his feet while Kiba got on all fours. The longer he stayed like this, the more persistent and fierce he became, Neji had to find a way to stop him now, or he'd lose him forever.

In a rush of dark blue Sasuke appeared next to them. "Neji! Is that Kiba?"

Kiba charged past Sasuke at Neji, head butting him and knocking his body back by the stomach into one of the steel girders fences them in. "Yeah." Neji grunted in pain as Kiba started slashing at him furiously with his claws. Sasuke ran forward to help, but Neji stopped him "No! Don't hurt him."

"But he's--"

"I said no!" Neji reached upward and grabbed Kiba's arms, then stepping forward, placing one foot behind his legs and tripping him. The werewolf fell to the ground and Neji jumped on top of him. "Kiba It's me, you have to try to remember." Neji said desperately, Kiba reached upward with another growl, grabbing Neji by his neck and throwing him past Sasuke across the roof.

Sasuke watched hesitantly but ready, still feeling uneasy about this, but that couldn't be helped.

Kiba jumped upward in a distortion of gray fur and landed in front of Neji, grabbing him by the neck again and lifting him up in to the air. Neji grabbed on to Kiba's wrist and tried to pry his hands off, but he was too strong "Kiba..." His voiced was strand due to the suffocation "Stop...It's me...you can't forget me...not after everything...you can't forget...try...you have to try!"

Kiba tilted his head back with an earth shaking roar, and drew his claws back, about to attack until Akamaru landed on his head out of nowhere, barking happily. Kiba flicked the dog off of him with one shake of his head, Akamaru landed on Neji's head, growling angrily. "..." Kiba hesitated.

"You remember don't you..." Neji struggled to hold his breath and refrained from fighting him, holding Kiba's arm tightly while he reached his other out hopefully. He laid his hand on Kiba's cheek softly. "I know you couldn't forget me that easily..."

Kiba stared at him with fangs baring, intense and unmoving...Kiba let go of Neji, clinching his head tightly with his claws and falling to his knees with a loud howl.

"Is it over?" Sasuke asked, still on guard and ready to attack.

Neji, panting light, placed his hand on Kiba's head and rubbed him in an a forgiving almost consoling manner, at first still uneasy and tense. "Arf!" Neji glanced up at Akamaru who was still resting on top of his head, the small dog quickly sprang off of him and towards Kiba, and some how Kiba had the presence of mind to catch him. "Arf!" Akamaru looked up evenly at the werewolf, still recognizing Kiba's sent and feeling unfazed by this knew form.

Kiba starred down at him, almost as if confused, then with a sadden expression...tears seeped out as he closed his eyes tightly and he wined depressingly. Which seemed to make Akamaru a little sad, and the small dog instinctively looked up toward Neji. "It wasn't your fault." Neji patted him on the back softly. "It's over now."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Next time, I'm not falling asleep." Naruto said, laying lazily near the edge of the roof with his feet hanging over the edge and his eyes toward the equinox sky. The east side still covered in darkness and dimming stars while the west glowed with the first ray of the coming sunrise.

Needless to say, everyone was wide awake now.

Iruka sat casually in the open stairs leading up to this level, a cup of coffee in hand. "So is he going to change back?"

"Yes." Neji was sitting with his back against one of the steel beams and a sleeping wolf laying beside him in a ball. Neji couldn't help but notice how even in this form that Kiba still had his usual sleeping expression on. "When the sunrises."

"We're going to go through this every time there's a full moon?" Sasuke asked in an annoyed tone, watching Konohamaru practicing in front of him.

"I doubt it, he remembered us, so he should next time."

"Dose there really have to be a next time?" Kakashi asked, perched a top a steel beam with his usual book in hand "Can't you try the seal again?"

"Maybe, but chances are it won't work." Neji paused to thing "But then again I'm not that good with demon sealing. They are so precise that one mistake could be the difference between halting mutations and stopping his heart."

The moon finally drifted bellow it's boundaries just as the top of the sun made it's way over the horizon. Kiba began to shrink, and his fur began to retract, along with the fangs that reverted back to there previous state as well as his claws. His face regained it's normal human complexion, still retaining that same sleepy expression. His mouth opened and closed slightly making the much smaller fangs visible with each breath, his chest rising and falling in a repeating pattern, everything seemed normal except for the furry, gray ears and tail that shifted and twitched lightly.

"That was really weird." Naruto said, his head tilted back just far enough to see what had just happened.


	18. Chapter 18: The domino effect part 1

Chapter 18: The domino effect part 1

Konohamaru walked into storage, a room on the first floor filled wall to wall with steel filing cabinets. It was more or less considered Sasuke's office because of his job, one filled tediously with paperwork, paperwork that was now out of the open cabinets and scattered all over the floor with Sasuke sitting in the center of what looked like a blizzard. "Sasuke? What's with the mess?"

Sasuke glanced back, then down at the paper in his hands "The purpose of my position is to keep records on everything, missions, monthly profit reportings, demons, things of that nature." He said annoyedly "And to file any other forms or legal documents acquired, all of this is done for statistics, profit and earning reports, client history, and detailed analysis of demons for future reference."

Konohamaru waited idly, knowing Sasuke was going someplace with this, Sasuke had a point to everything he did. The boy rubbed his increasingly red and itchy eyes and sniffled a bit.

"I was looking for a form for a certain type of demon described in an upcoming mission." He said, setting the paper in his hand down in one of the growing stacks on the side of the room " With every thing that's been happening I wasn't able to establish a filing system, and I can't find a damn thing!"

Konohamaru nodded, it wasn't like Sasuke to be so disorganized, but he was right, organization was hard too-- "Aaachooo!" Konohamaru sneezed loudly, his chakra flaring up in a quick flash, both of them combined was enough to scatter the papers in two of the piles into an rain of paper.

Sasuke looked up at him through the falling files, he wasn't too happy.

Konohamaru rubbed his nose and smiled nervously, glad at the moment that he was himself and he had a certain level of obtained patience credit with Sasuke. "Uh...maybe I better leave."

Sasuke already had become frustrated with the fact he had been sitting here for an hour going through hundreds of papers, this wasn't helping his mood "That's a good idea." he refrained from using a tone too dark, which made him sound even more scary.

! - ! - !

"You know, just because your sick doesn't mean you have to leave." Gaara said, sitting under the waterfall that lay about a mile away from SDI. He was on a large island like rock mounted directly in the center, his legs crossed, with out a shirt and headphones on his ears. Apparently he'd spent the money to get it as well as the CD player water proofed.

Konohamaru nodded "Everyone's better off this way, If I'm gone until I get better then no one else will get sick. I'd just be in the way if I stay."

Gaara closed his eyes and began concentrating, lifting sand from his gourd that was back on shore. "Dose everyone know your leaving?"

"I told Iruka." Konohamaru said, sniffling a little as he watched the sand drift over to Gaara. "What are you doing?" He cringed and sneezed.

Gaara compacted the sand into a perfect orb, then spikes rose from the interior of it. Next the sand started to flatten out in to a paper thin square plane before him, and in a surreal effect it rippled as if it was the surface of a pool of water being disrupted by am object being thrown in. "Training." He said dryly, before he couldn't get anywhere near this level of control over the sand's shape, he could barely shape it into something remotely round and keep it floating at the same time. But now...

Konohamaru had learned not to bother Gaara when training, since Gaara was like Sasuke, he was easily annoyed. Though Gaara's tolerance for annoyance was much less. "Well see ya."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"You want to stay with us for a week because your sick." Kisame said, looking down at Konohamaru who'd traveled quite a distance to reach him and Itachi "Why, Your friends kick you out?"

Konohamaru shook his head, looking around the inside of Kisame's home from the door, which had been completely repaired after being nearly blown up back when they fault Reedamaru's hunter-nins. "No, but I don't want to get in their way or make them sick, they have enough problems."

"But." Kisame started "You want to get in my way and make me sick, No thanks brat." Kisame close the door on him, or rather tried too but Konohamaru jumped in-between and in an attempt to keep it open.

"Come...on...Boss!" Konohamaru growled in a strained voice, pushing from the other side while Kisame held the barrier easily with one hand. "You--Achoo!" Konohamaru sneezed, making his chakra flare up suddenly, Kisame was force to take a step back.

'What the hell?' Kisame let go of the door, watching Konohamaru fall flat on his face inside. "Fine, you can stay." Kisame gave up annoyedly and slightly aggravated, shutting the door behind him.

Kisame headed upstairs while Konohamaru stood up and tried to follow, only to find his scarf was stuck in the door. Konohamaru clinched his scarf and pulled, it seemed to be completely stuck "Let go damnit!" Konohamaru planted a foot on the wall and pulled harder "Let-- Achoo!" His Chakra flared with another sneeze, blowing the lock off the door and knocking it open. Konohamaru stubbed backwards with the scarf free, but the door swung back and slammed into his face making him fall back on to the ground. "Owww!"

Itachi walked through, glancing at the door, then at Konohamaru. "Konohamaru, what are you doing here?"

"I got sick." Konohamaru sat up, clinching his forehead. "I was just in the way back home."

"So you came here, so you could be in my way."

"That's what Kisame said."

"Kisame was right" Itachi sighed, annoyed at Kisame's blatant soft spot for this kid. "Fine, just don't--"

Konohamaru sneezed "Achhoo!" and his Chakra flared up in a quick flash. He fell back down midway in his attempt to stand "My head is burning..."

Itachi placed his hand on Konohamaru's forehead, "You have a fever, go lay down...somewhere. And repress your chakra, you have too much of it then your body can handle that fever is causing it to seep out and it's making you sneeze." Itachi knew that could be damaging.

Konohamaru cringed, feeling as if he was going to sneeze again, but he repressed the uprising chakra and the sneeze faded also 'It worked?' "You were right Itachi, it worked." With the fact that Itachi just taught him something in mind, he shouted out "Hey, you wanna go train?"

"Go lay down." Itachi said, walking past him with annoyment growing.

"Come on! Please?" Konohamaru asked, following behind him.

"Go lay down." Itachi repeated.

"Owww."

"If your not going to listen to me." Itachi sat down on the black couch, removing the cloak around his shoulders "Then go do something that doesn't involve you bothering me."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Find it yet?" Naruto looked around a slightly neater Sasuke's office, now stacked high with papers and leaving only a few on the ground.

"Here Dobe." Sasuke tossed a paper back forcefully at Naruto and continued with his task.

"Someone's temperamental." Naruto snorted, looking over the paper. "Jerk."

"Shut up Naruto." Sasuke waved the bond off, tucking a stack of papers under his arm and walking over to one of the file cabinets, "I wouldn't be surprised if that demon ate you."

Naruto shot him a look, glancing quickly down at the paper to see what demon he was talking about. "It's a Muck demon, a muck demon can't eat me. And they say your a genus." Naruto said in a cocky manner.

"Baka." Sasuke rolled his eyes as he closed the drawer. "Didn't you listen to Kakashi? It's not normal sized Umizuki, it's 9 stories tall."

Naruto froze, he felt his blood run cold "N-Nine stories tall!"

Sasuke smirked at Naruto's expression "Figures you'd be scared."

Naruto snapped back, growing angry at Sasuke again "I'm not scared! Hell, I can beat it by my self!"

The image of a large demon covered in black mud devouring Naruto whole crossed Sasuke's mind, the thought of it made him laugh out loud "I'd like to see you try idiot!"

Naruto glared at him "I will, Just you watch!" Naruto, feeling evidently high in confidence of his clam...more like highly motivated to prove Sasuke wrong, got an impish idea. "I'd even bet you on it."

Sasuke shook his head "You'd lose that bet. And why would I want to come in the first place, it's your team's mission."

"If your so sure then let's bet on it." Naruto said, an impish smirk appearing on his face "If I win you have to do whatever I want for a whole month."

"And If I win?" Sasuke asked

"You won't." Naruto snorted, "But if you do, same thing." Naruto extended his hand with the same smirk on his face, he was really confident on this."

"Fine dobe." Sasuke shook his hand and walked past him "Get your rest, I have so much for you to do."

"We'll see about that!"

! - ! - !

Kisame descended the stairs from his bedroom, heading toward the kitchen when he nearly stepped on Konohamaru who was perched in an odd position at the bottom step. "What the hell are you doing there?"

Konohamaru didn't look up, he just kept moving in a slow, zombie like manner. "Dominos."

Kisame leaned over him questioningly in an attempt to see what he was working on. 'Huh?' Just like Konohamaru said, Dominos were being set up in the most intricate design the boy could think of. There were a trail of black squares leading from a few feet in front of the door, where it split into two rows then proceeded to zig zag and cross itself in several points, before it acceded a stairway of books on to table, then circled a single domino in 10 alternating black and white rows. After that it ran directly into the single domino that lead to a ball, that ball would roll off the table and on to a line under it on the floor where another trail would start, the one Konohamaru was currently working on making ascend the stairs.

Konohamaru looked like a dazed zombie, he was even moaning slightly even, Kisame was almost sure he saw drool. Apparently he really was sick, and it was starting to catch up with him. "I'm impressed..." Kisame said, following the line, it was almost hypnotizing... "You though of all of this by yourself." Kisame found himself standing at the start of the line, staring at the first Domino, subconsciously inching toward it.

"Kisame!"

Kisame glanced back, Itachi was standing behind him "What?"

"Those Dominos are the only thing keeping him out of my hair." Itachi said "I'll make it clear, I have work to do and I don't want him bothering me. Do.not.knock.them.over."

"I wasn't." Kisame snorted, he actually was. It was like an itch, it was so tempting...

"Don't."

"I wasn't."

Konohamaru didn't seem to notice them, he didn't seem to notice anything but the fact that his head was pounding, and his body as aching, and his nose was completely congested, and his eyes were itchy and watery, and his sinuses were killing him. The medicine Itachi gave him was making him sleepy...really sleepy, much too sleepy. 'Great, I think I fell for something...I think Itachi drugged me---' Before Konohamaru could finish his thought he was unconscious and snoring lightly.

Kisame glanced over at Konohamaru, then smirked to himself.

"I see that look." Itachi warned "Don't do it."

"I'm not." Kisame said 'But if one accidentally falls over while he was sleeping, and it just happens to hit the other...'

! - ! - !

Kiba sat anxiously Lee's safe, his hands between his legs gripping the edge of the steel box and his heels pressed against it while he leaned forward. His tail swept slowly across the safe as he waited, "Find anything?"

Neji walked though the rows of books and into his study, "No." Neji sat down at his desk and leaned back in his chair, "What are we going to do with the third floor?"

"I already have that covered." Kiba said, he'd spent the money to have it built, of course he was going to do something with it. "Anyway...I still think we should just crack this thing open, I could do it by my self now. Sure it would take a while but--"

"No Kiba." Neji said firmly "That would most likely break what's inside."

"Well, have you tried looking through it?" Kiba, apparently much more flexible, leaned forward and pressed his nose against it with out moving his lower body an inch, Neji notice how it was an odd, painful looking position but it was easy for Kiba. "I thought your Bakyugan could see through almost anything."

"I tried but..." Neji thought back on what he saw when he tried "But I can't, it's like there's something inside that distorts my view of the contents, it's beyond recondition. And it's shifting around."

Kiba continued sniffing, though unable to smell anything but steel. "Think whatever's inside is alive?"

"Imposable." Neji shook his head, completely sure about this "That safe is air tight and it's been sealed for what looks like a number of years. Nothing could survive."

"Well if you don't want to do it my why, how are you going to figure out the rest of the combination?"

Neji rested his elbows on the desk and held his head in his hands "I don't know, looks like the only thing I have to go on now is whatever's left in Lee's house and Gai..." This was becoming frustrating, what else could he go on? What would 2 numbers would Lee use? How could he determine something like this 'What would Lee do...Damnit Lee! Why didn't you tell me the combination? Just to torture me?...No, he wasn't like that...'

Neji sighed, starting to feel bad about knowing his teammate better. 'I wonder if he's alright...'

"I'm going to find Gai."

"Alright." Kiba jumped off the safe "I'll come with you."

! - ! - !

"Will you two lay off of each other." Kakashi grabbed Naruto and Sasuke, pulling them away from each other. "We don't have time for this."

Naruto shot one last look at Sasuke before turning away and folded his arms "Fine."

Sasuke continued walking ahead, ignoring Naruto completely. Instead he chose to survey his surroundings, swamp overshadowed with strong trees, high grass and murky water that was ankle deep. It was rather dark, and the consecutive fog didn't help their vision. Though they figured they wouldn't need a form of light, how hard would it be to spot a 9 story demon? Apparently it was proving harder then expected.

"Are we in the right spot?" Iruka asked, "We should have seen it by now, maybe Mr. Meioto was wrong and it moved on."

Gaara stopped "No, it's still here."

"How do you know?" Kakashi scouted out the area once more, he should have seen it by now, it couldn't still be here.

"Because we've been standing on it all along." Gaara pulled away abruptly as soon as that fact became known to him, he got a hint after he felt the mud under the water's surface starting to travel up his legs. He didn't get anywhere though, the dark muck had a tight grip around him and it was growing tighter. It would have been hard for Gaara if he hadn't had a layer of sand separating him from it, the only thing Gaara had to do was expand the sand outward and he could slip out.

"Whaaa!" Naruto started hacking away at the muck climbing up his body with a kunai, moving in an almost panicked manner.

"Calm down, if you struggle too much then it'll just be harder to get out." Kakashi told him, Kakashi didn't have trouble with it. If he surrounded himself with enough Chakra then it couldn't swallow him, apparently Iruka and Sasuke figured this out too, Naruto seemed to be the only one that hadn't.

From the swamp's waters, mud started to rise and pile on to completely by itself, growing larger and larger until it was an enormous unmistakable heap before them. The 5 of them watched as the demon started to take shape.

"Well, at least we know it's still here..." Iruka stared up at the still growing body, still trying to figure out how they would defeat something like this. They still had one thing to their advantage, and that was the cover of all of these trees surrounding them, they could easily hide themselves. Their only way to fight something like-- "What the--!" A strong impact slammed unexpectedly into his back and something dug into his shoulders as he was knocked forward, pushing him face down into the low waters.

Kakashi immediately looked back toward the source of the sudden out cry and splash, he found something he defiantly hadn't expected. A impish red demon with two sets of green eyes, one above the other, the buds of horns growing out of the top of it's head and a medium sized tail wiping behind it. "! It can't be the same demon as before?"

Iruka threw an elbow back into it's face hard enough to knock it off, he rolled over, coughing out inhaled water and then gasp loudly. Iruka sat up abruptly "No way, it can't be?" he recognized this demon, how could he not? The marks from where it had bit him on the leg was still purple.

The imp demon flipped upward, landing on it's feet "Iruka." it called out in almost normal voice, though there was a second, deeper demonic voice underlying the first one, it sounded like there were two of them speaking at once.

Iruka shuttered as he drew a Kunai and tossed it towards the imp demon, he struck it in the arm and forcing it to stumble back just long enough for Iruka to stand. "Why do you keep coming after me!" Iruka lunged forward, grabbing the imp by the neck with one hand and slamming it to the ground. Still with a firm grip on it's neck and holding it's head beneath the water's surface, Iruka drew his fist back and slammed in into the demon's face.

Before he could go in for another attack, or before the imp could push him off, they both felt a sharp change in the ground bellow them. "Huh?" Iruka looked around unexpectantly.

"Iruka!" Kakashi ran towards the pair "The ground is--" He was too late, before he could get out another word he saw the weak sink hole under Iruka and the demon give way and both of them fall through to a hole in the earth. "Iruka!"

"Oh man, Iruka!" Naruto immediately ran toward the hole, but he was stopped by Kakashi.

"No, you three handle the demon." Kakashi wasn't sure Naruto would be able to help Iruka much, or at all. That Demon was capable of things, it could mutate again into who knew what...Kakashi ran toward the hole and dived in.

"Well Naruto." Sasuke turned back toward the mass of growing black muck before them, watching a large arm force it's way outward and slam down to the ground before them. An opening appeared as the demon exposed it's mouth, forcing another arm from the shaping mass of black muck. "Here's your chance."

Naruto stared up at the muck demon with his mouth falling open slightly, then he looked over at Sasuke and scowled. He saw an unaware Gaara starting to build Chakra for a transformation, "Gaara, I'm going to do this on my own."

"What? That's foolish." He said "There's no way I can let--"

"I can do this." Naruto said. "Just trust me."

"Naruto." Gaara was confused at why he would want to attempt taking on something like this on his own, what was the point of putting himself in danger needlessly? "Are you sure?"

Naruto smirked "Just leave it to me!" He said confidently, that confidence was shaken along with everything else when a loud screeching cry sounded from the creature. It'd taken full form, a large torso with two arms and a head devoid of eyes, it didn't have a lower body.

'! What the hell did I just get my self in too?'

! - !- !

Konohamaru yawned lightly, rolling over. He didn't care that he had just fallen asleep on the stairs, he barely noticed, what he did notice was that his head was still burning and his throat was sore, which was only made worse by the nagging itch to cough. Itachi warned him against that also, with Konohamaru's excess of Chakra and small body, coughing would only bring up that chakra in a corrosive manner and rip apart his throat. "Owwww..." He closed his eyes again, trying to go back to sleep.

"..." Kisame gently placed his foot on Konohamaru's back, waiting for a moment, Konohamaru didn't seem to notice, Konohamaru didn't seem to be able to notice anything. That same smirk from before subconsciously appeared as he lightly nudged Konohamaru forward toward the domino on the step below him. He probably should have felt bad about kicking Konohamaru down the stairs, but he didn't, infact he was looking forward to it.

Just a little farther...a little...! Kisame abruptly stopped, scowling to himself when he saw Itachi looking at him. "Don't even think about it."

"Think about what?" Kisame looked up innocently.

"Leave him alone." Itachi warned.

Konohamaru opened his eyes, glancing over at Itachi, then Kisame questingly. Then he cringed as a sneeze erupted from him unexpectedly bringing a flash of chakra outward, one that just barely reached a domino on the step below him. Kisame watched it wobble and shake, waiting, hoping it would fall...but somehow it stayed standing 'Oh come on, just fall already!'

"Is it suppose to hurt this much?" Konohamaru curled into a ball, clinching his burning head with both hands. "Damnniiiiitttt!"

! - !- !

"Impudent Humans." The demon roared, it's voice shaking the trees and high weeds of the swamp when it spoke "SDI will fall."

"Impotent!" Naruto growled, rolling up his sleeves "Nobody calls me Impotent and gets away with it!"

Gaara just sighed and shook his head while an amused Sasuke resisted the urge to insult him right then.

"Alright demon!" Naruto yelled, charging toward the large monstrosity with a Kunai in hand " Come and--Ahaaa!" He was cut off when the muck demon lifted it's large hand and slammed it down on a ant like in comparison Naruto. Seconds later Naruto could be seen being sucked up the demon's arm as if being carried by the current of a river. "Whaaaa!"

"Naruto, it's body is made of mud." Gaara called up "Don't fight it head on! Use Chakra!"

Naruto rolled around and tried to swim back down the monster's arm, but he was quickly pulled inside of it's body. "Weaklings, is the best the great SDI has to offer?"

Naruto held his breath, feeling himself being smashed from all sides 'Ahhaaaaa! I HAVE TO DO THIS! I GATTA DO THIS!' Naruto clinched his body into a ball...pushing...pushing...struggling..."Gyaaaaa!" His Chakra was unleashed on one big, painful rush, and almost immediately afterwards he felt a strong push and he was forced out of the demon's body, sailing through the air, and then crashing into a tree behind Sasuke and Gaara.

"Naruto, maybe you should...rethink fighting this by yourself." Gaara reached into the clouding dust created from the crash and pulled Naruto out.

Pushing wet hair off of his face, Naruto declined "No way, I can do it...It just caught me off guard that--" Once again he was cut off as the demon slammed it's palm down on the three of them, flattening in the murky waters before clinching them in to it's fist and extracting their bodies from the ground.

"Pitiful humans." The Murk drew it's arm back, holding it self up with the other, then throwing the three of them outwards. Naruto, Gaara and Sasuke flew fell helplessly toward the ground, Sasuke slamming into a tree and breaking through completely and skimming along the ground to a stop a few feet away. Naruto hit the water's surface and skipped off like a stone, his body bouncing a few feet away before he fell to the ground again, sliding to a stop with a large trail behind him. Gaara was thrown the farthest, his body crashing into a cliff wall that separated the swamp from the plains above on higher ground a half mile away.

"!" Naruto cringed, feeling a sharp pain in his back where he landed. "Ahaa..." It became even worse as he tried to stand, threatening to bring him back down, but Naruto pushed through it. And he was fairly certain that a pain this intense could only mean something was broken, or close to it. "DAMNIT!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, feeling the Chakra pushing from the seal ripping through him and exploding outward.

The red energy engulfed his body, raising from his heals like a thick smoke. From that encasement of Chakra radiated a loud roar, causing the smoke like substance to dissipate enough to make his body visible. His hair grew longer along with the marks on his cheeks that became bolder and more defined. His finger nails grew into sharp, white claws, and fangs made themselves visible inside his mouth. He could feel the change, he could feel the cracked seal on his stomach pouring with energy, though he could no longer feel the pain in his back that should have been there. "I...can beat the demon!"

Naruto stood firm as the demon pulled itself toward them at an unexpectedly fast speed, being the closest it reached him first. Naruto jumped upward toward the demon, much higher then usual, his body covered in an outline of red as he drew his arm back and swiped at it's face with his claws. The demon cried out as a flood of thick mud was thrown from it's body and it was knocked back a little. "Damned fools!" It yelled, clearly hurt by Naruto's attack. The Muck lifted it's hand and grabbed Naruto out of the air, squeezing his body tightly.

"Naruto!" Sasuke, covered in a lately highly active curse seal, landed on Muck's fist, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders and pulling him out of the slick muck, but immediately he was smacked away by a powerful backhand from the demon. But not before freeing Naruto.

Sasuke was suddenly engulfed in sand, sand that halted his helpless flight and pulled him down safely to the ground. The muck drew it's free hand back and slammed it's fist into Naruto, but a similar barrier of sand hardened and surrounded and him, blocking the impact of the blow though not with out nearly breaking. Naruto grabbed on to the hardened wall with his claws and climbed to the top, jumping into the air and rising above the demon's arm just as Muck punched the barrier again, this time smashing through it.

With another deep roar, Naruto drew his foot back, using Chakra to hasten his descent until his body was a body was a blur of distorted crimson. "Eat this!" Naruto shouted, rocketing into the demon's head with a powerful kick, knocking it on to it's back with a tall splash of muddy water causing a deep imprint in the ground with earthquake resulting.

He landed next to Gaara and Sasuke.

"This is too dangerous, I'm not going to let you fight this alone." Gaara said, the tone in his voice and look in his eye leaving no room for argument. Naruto, having seen that look before, didn't make any. "I think I can at least hold it down with my sand." Gaara said "Then you and Sasuke should be able to fight it from there."

"Your not nearly powerful enough to slow it down let alone hold it." Sasuke objected, watching the demon's body melting away down into the swam, knowing there was no way they could fight it if it succeed in liquefying in to the ground. Also knowing there wasn't a way they could stop it from doing so. "And it's too late for that, I'm not even sure if there's a way to fight it when it takes this form."

In fact, how could they even defend against it? They couldn't stay off the ground, being the only way to avoid an attack from the muck. Damn gravity.

"I know that." Gaara removed the gourd from his back and sat it down behind him. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, beginning a set of complex hand seals.

"No way, your not going to use that are you?" Naruto said in disbelief "You don't know what it might do to you."

Gaara didn't seem to be listening, he just continued the sets of hand seals, ending with his right fist being clinched in his left hand. "Overclocking Ninpo!" Gaara's shadow changed shape, becoming a black spot under his feet, then it shifted into a golden light, a golden light projecting a clock with numbers surrounding it in roman numerals. The transparent hands spun around uncontrollably, the faster the spin, the brighter the light. Growing brighter and brighter until Gaara was completely consumed in a beam, followed by a burst of wind and a shockwave that knocked Naruto and Sasuke off their feet when the clock's image shattered and the light faded.

"G-Gaara?" Naruto looked up at the boy, seeing only one particular change in him, that his green eyes were glowing brightly and there was a darker tent to him...

Sand circled Gaara's heals in a tornadic spin, Gaara didn't seem to notice that. He clinched his fist tightly, causing the ground to shake violently. The water shifted around like an ocean during a storm, trees were being torn from their roots. Though Naruto and Sasuke didn't feel it, they were being lifted up by a mass of sand. That sand hardened into rock, rock that floated a good distance off the ground. 'He's doing all of this by himself?' Sasuke thought to himself, watching a stone walls being created and rising from the ground to incase Gaara's body just in time as the black muck shot upward out of the water and reached for Sasuke and Naruto. 'How can he make a defense that strong? It normally would have been easily broken through by something like that but it wasn't even scratched...'

! - !- !

Iruka rolled over, forcing the imp down and holding him beneath himself as they tumbled through the dark hole. He felt the sharp impact as they landed on something solid, Iruka still mounted on top of it. The Imp arched upward, driving his knee into Iruka and kicking him off. Iruka slid backward, only after a few inches he felt himself going over the edge of whatever and they were on and falling again.

'What kind of place is this?' Iruka watched as the small light from the surface reseeded from him quickly, he had enough instinct to know when the ground was approaching so he was able to land on his feet. By the time he was on the ground again he couldn't see that light anymore, only faintly hear falling water from the direction of the hole in this pitch black cave. He could use that find his way out. 'Maybe if I get out in time I can trap that demon...' It surely couldn't find him again after that.

He heard the sound of something hitting the ground before him and saw the odd pairs of glowing green eyes open in front of him "Iruka." It was the Imp.

"Why do you keep following me?" Iruka retrieved another Kunai from the holder attached to his waist, watching the eyes closely to track it's movements. He saw them spring towards him and he lifted the Kunai to block it. The imp reached forward and latched on to his shoulders, prompting Iruka to drive the Kunai forward, slashing the Imp across it's chest then driving his shoulder into it's torso.

The Imp stumbled back, falling completely after a kick to the chest from Iruka. It's eyes instinctively closed, hiding itself with the distinct knowledge that Iruka couldn't see in the dark. 'Where is it...' Iruka looked around carefully, trying to find some way to track it. Sound wasn't working, there was too much noise from falling water. Though he didn't have Kiba's sense of smell, which would have worked, he was the best tracker since he was the one that taught Kiba all of his skills.

Iruka knelt down, pressing his hand against the small pool of water layering over it...He felt small vibrations, one coming from his left where the water from above was falling into the pool he was inside of, and another coming from the right...Iruka jumped into the air abruptly and tossed the Kunai towards the Imp behind him.

The Demon, surprised that Iruka had found him, spun around, catching the blade with his tail and flicking it back at Iruka. He didn't even have time to notice it until it struck him in the chest, luckily the side opposite of his heart. "!" Iruka landed hard on his back, he was sure he'd hit him... Ignoring the pain he reached for the Kunai in his chest, but his hand was suddenly pulled away and pinned above his head, 'I...couldn't even sense it coming...' Well, he was quite aware of the Imp's presence when he saw those glowing green eyes open, looking directly at him, it was unnerving.

"You said...you want to know why I keep ...coming after you ...I...can feel you..." The Imp slowly lowered his head toward the kunai embedded in his torso, though encountering some resistance from Iruka. Eventually he got close enough for him to remove the knife with is tail, then run his tongue over the seeping blood. "I'm drawn to you...I...need you..., I can feel you...you taste good." The demon pressed it's mouth against the wound, sinking it's teeth into his flesh and inhaling sharply.

Iruka didn't just feel his blood being drained, he felt something else being drawn out from him. 'It's...absorbing my Chakra!' He could see it, small streams of light were being pulled from his body and into the demon's mouth. "That's just creepy." Iruka forced his hand out of the demon's grip and grabbed on to the Imp's head "Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" A blast of sharp wind shot out of his palm, blowing the Demon away.

There was no use of Iruka hiding from him, or even using concealing Jutsu in a fight, the demon was drawn to him. Mainly by blood though it looked as if also by chakra, and it wanted more...it needed more.

"Iruka!" Kakashi dived downward, his body illuminated by the light of a very static Chidori discharging lighting in his palm. Kakashi drove the force into the demon's back, it roared out loudly..."What?" Kakashi looked down at Iruka...his body started sparking, then streams of electricity came out of nowhere, causing him to cry out in pain also.

Kakashi landed on his feet while demon fell face down in the short waters. "Iruka!" Kakashi was fast enough to catch Iruka before he hit the ground, whatever had just happened was enough to knock him out...Kakashi hit the demon with the Chidori...and Iruka was electrocuted too. It had said before for that it could feel Iruka...and if Kakashi hit the demon and Iruka was damaged with the same kind of attack. Then that could only mean one thing, they were connected? 'What the hell did that thing do to you?'

Kakashi sat Iruka down on the ground, checking him over as best he could in the dark. He was completely unconscious and alive "Iruka...!" Kakashi looked up, the ground started shaking, hard, 'Damnit, not now!' Kakashi picked up a discarded Kunai and jumped into the air to avert the oncoming cave in.

The Imp lifted it's head from the water weakly, coughing out some of the liquid from his lungs. "I-Iruka..." He moaned with a light bit of pain, very aware of the remaining electricity coursing through his body because of the water, there were even small streaks of lighting still streaming across his body. Biting back the pain, the demon reached outward and grabbed on to the next solid object and pulled himself forward, stopping to cough out some blood 'He...can...make me...better...I need him.'

! - !- !

With failed attempts to reach Naruto and Sasuke, or to break Gaara's defenses, the Muck demon had no choice but to reform, which was what Gaara had been waiting for. Even in Overclocking, his Sand was weak, some times powerless against water, which is why he was depending on Naruto and Sasuke. If not Naruto, Sasuke knew a way to solve his problem.

"The bets off." Naruto said, "Gaara jumped in."

Actually Sasuke had intervened to help Naruto, but he had no choice since the demon was attacking indiscriminately, or at least that's what he said to himself. But on the other hand... "No way dead-last, you were getting your ass kicked." He snorted, watching the muck pile up in front of them, taking shape again.

"Die Humans!" The Muck opened it's mouth widely and spit out a ball off black mud, after which it started in hailing with a powerful suction that the ball seemed to be moving too fast to be effected by, though everything else was.

"Oh shit!" Naruto veered back, it was too large for him to doge, and the vacuum the muck was creating inhibited his speed drastically, he had to struggle not to be pulled in. "Get ready! It's going to hit--"

The Curse seal erupted, forcefully invoking Sharingan to take effect and a hazy purple Chakra to disburse over him 'What--what happened?' He had more pressing matters to worry about, Sasuke started the hand seals to a fire jutsu, swallowing air with deep breaths, Sasuke blew outward, though instead of regular flames, a blue fire was forced out of his mouth in a enormous wall.

The wall of blue fire engulfed the large projectile, almost instantly the ball fell from the sky, frozen solid. "Whoa...Sasuke? When did you learn that?" Naruto looked down at the falling ice in amazement.

Sasuke shook his head, feeling a crushing pressure on the inside of him pushing out. It was painful, just as before. "Just get ready!" He yelled in aggravation, drawing in another deep breath and blowing out normal flames this time though in greater amounts then last time. The wave of fire propagated outward, colliding with the muck demon.

It howled loudly, surrounded by intense fire. "Stupid fools." The muck demon dove it's arm out of the flames, driving it's fingers in to the ground and pulling it self through the flames, seemingly effected at first glance. But exactly what Sasuke had wanted to happen, happened. The mud that made up it's body had hardened, it wasn't liquid anymore, though physically it had more defense, still...

Naruto smirked, This was a perfect time for one good Rasengan ...

Sand rose from the ground the size a tidal wave, substantial amounts of all falling on and surrounding the hardened muck demon, smashing it down and trapping it underneath. "Desert Rain." All of the sand rose off of the monster and floating in the air , forming into a grainy cloud that had to take a lot of strength on Gaara's part to create as well as lift. Then all at once the tons and tons of sand came down in a torrent spike shaped rain drops so thick that the demon couldn't be seen through it, though Naruto and Sasuke could be hear the creature being ripped apart quite easily.

"Whoa, Gaara." Naruto looked down to shield Gaara had been using to protected himself, but it was completely gone. "Huh? Where is Gaara?"

"Forget about that Naruto...look around." Sasuke said, a slightly fearful tone in his voice, defiantly surprised.

"Huh, what is--What hell!" Naruto looked around, watching more and more piles of muck growing from the swamp around them. 5 or so more of them, surrounding them. "There's no way we can fight all of these."

"You two should move. Preferably very far away."

Naruto nearly fell off the rock platform when he heard Gaara's voice behind him, Gaara grabbed him by his collar and pulled him back on to his feet. "Where did you come from?" Naruto asked, panting lightly from the surprise. "Nevermind, We have to find Iruka and Kakashi and get out of here."

"You two just leave, I can handle these on my own." Gaara said in his usual calm manner, then he lifted the headphones around his neck over his ears and started messing with the CD player on his waist while his body started to sink into the rock pillar, completely disappearing with no trace. And just to give them both a little incentive, Gaara let the platforms holding Naruto and Sasuke up break apart.

The mountain of sand that had just destroyed the first Muck demon started to shake and shift around on it's own, right before exploding loudly into a cloud of dust. Something much larger jumped out of the cloud, landing directly in the center of the 5 demons...Shukaku, complete with illuminated eyes and a tan glow over his body, oddly enough there were a pair of headphones hanging awkwardly over his large ears that made the fierce creature look a lot less dangerous...if anything he was more, much more. "So, you've set a trap for us, and I assume there isn't really a Mr. Meioto..."

"So you think now that you've change that you stand a chance." One of the demons said. "Your still just a weak human.." Another one said "You SDI bastards die now!"

Shukaku didn't hear anything after that, the blaring music prevented him from listening to any other responses from the demons since it came to a rift and the loudest part of Gaara's favorite song, It also prevented a few other things, like himself being taken over by the demon he'd transformed into. "My existence wont be erased by the likes of you!" Shukaku charged forward, lifting his paw and swiping one of the muck demons ahead of him, it's whole body flew backwards in a mass of liquid. Shukaku drew in a breath and spit out a massive ball of sand that smashed into it while the demon was still in mid air.

Shukaku turned around with a quick agility that made his body a tan blur for a split second, slamming his tail into a Muck coming from behind, then rising to his heels and driving his head into one approaching from his left, next kicking the one behind him with his hind legs. The fifth came from his right side through Shukaku was expectant. He dropped to the ground and rolled hard, rolling directly through it and causing it to fall face first to the ground. Shukaku sprang on to his feet behind it, drawing back a paw and swiping it across it's back hard enough to send it flying forward.

'He's so strong now...' Sasuke found himself taking a step back, watching a transformed Gaara beating the demons so easily.

"Go Gaara!" Naruto cheered him on. "Hey, I like that song!"

Shukaku stood up on his hind legs, adjusting the awkward sitting headphones on his ears before he drove his head into the ground. The faint vibrations could be felt when he howled into the earth, then his Desert rain attack rose up from the ground, shooting upward in much thicker spikes then previous before. The muck demons were torn apart, leaving all of them just a pile of black mud scattered across the ground.

"He's not even tired." Naruto sat down the ground, seeing the sand fall and Shukaku's fury body in the center of it all.

"It's not over yet." Sasuke told him, pointing to one of the piles of mud...at first it seemed completely lifeless...but it started to twitch, all of the scattered liquid did so at the same time. All of it started to pull together, piling up on each other again. "It looks like all of them...joining together."

"What! No way, Gaara cant handle something that strong, even with Overclocking." Naruto said worriedly. "We have to help him!"

Shukaku stood on his hind legs again, watching the demons pile on to each other, already much wider and taller then him and not yet finished growing. '!'

"No more of this! Humans will die now!" It's loud voice thundered "SDI will be destroyed by my hands and no one else's!"

'The demons are even fighting over who wants to kill us...' Shukaku thought, taking a step back as the growing body started to become frightful even to him. 'The different species weren't working together, they were fighting each other to gain claim on our lives. When Iruka said we were breeding animosity, I never thought it could possibly be this bad...' That was a scary thought, but it did make since, SDI had killed some rather powerful demons. And large numbers, it seemed like every day for the last 6 months they'd been hunting something for a mission or just because it was a threat to Konoha or another populated area...this was a very scary thought. To think a whole race was after them...

But more pressingly, these demons...or he should say this single demon looked as if it could actually do so.

! - ! - !

Kakashi landed tiredly at the bottom of the dark cave, averting a cave-in in the dark wasn't an easy task. He dragged himself through the ankle high pool of water, searching around for Iruka. '?' He noticed a faint green light just ahead, and a light blue one, almost like Chakra... 'That light...almost the same as...!' "Iruka!" Mentally kicking himself for leavening Iruka alone and defenseless, Kakashi ran towards the light.

When he got close enough he could see what was happening clearly. The blue light was Iruka's chakra, and that green light was the Imp demon's eyes. He was sitting against the wall, an unconscious Iruka being held in his lap and his fangs buried into Iruka's neck. Iruka's Chakra was visible because the demon was also absorbing it too. "I-Iruka!"

Kakashi grabbed the demon by his head and pulled it's teeth from Iruka's neck. "Get off of him damnit!" Kakashi pushed Iruka's dormant body to the side, kicking the demon away. He grabbed Iruka before he could fall in to the water, wishing he could see right now. "Iruka, Iruka!"

Kakashi wrapped his arm around Iruka's waist and lifted him on to his feet, leaning him against the wall. He felt a strong sense of fault about this, though he didn't know the demon was some how linked to Iruka when he used the Chidori on it, it was his attack that made Iruka pass out in the first place, and he was the one that left Iruka alone afterwords. "Iruka, you have to wake up..." Kakashi lightly slapped Iruka's cheeks, he felt cold... "Iruka!"

"Mmnnanaannn..." Iruka moaned incoherently, he was light headed, dizzy, weak, short of breath. "Ahaagggaaaraaa..."

Kakashi resisted the urge to hug him, "I'm so sorry, I wouldn't have interfered this would have never happened." He was right, Iruka was holding his own and had a very good chance of winning, especially after the training Kakashi was giving him from his request. "Iruka..." Kakashi squinted his eyes a bit when a light-blue light flashed, making their surrounding's visible. 'How dose this thing keep mutating?'

The Imp like demon clinched it's head and groaned painfully, it's body started to bulk up, the muscles in his arms, legs, torso grew substantially. His tail grew wider, stronger, longer, and white horns sprouted from his head, the four small, unremarkable green eyes became two normal sized white ones with brown pupils. "URgaaaa!" It's voice was deeper now too, completely demonic in nature with no second tones. With a rush of blood from his back, wings sprouted, medium sized ones covered in black feathers.

"Oh...no..." Kakashi hadn't even noticed that his mouth was hanging open. "What the hell are you?"

The demon stood up strait, about a foot taller then before, no longer just an imp but a full devil. "Get away, he's mine!" The vampire roared, charging at Kakashi with wings outstretched.

"Leave Iruka-sama alone!" From above Kakashi came flying down, grabbing on to the demon's horns and slamming his face into the ground.

Kakashi looked at himself, realizing that he was staring at his Doppelganger, 'Iruka-sama?'. Then he heard Iruka moan in pain. "Stop it! If you hurt it you hurt Iruka!" he growled

The copy looked at them, then the demon glowing with the light blue Chakra. "What did you do to Iruka-sama!"

"I didn't do anything!" Kakashi shouted bitterly, he had to get Iruka way from these two, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. But he couldn't leave, if he did his Iruka infatuated double would no doubt beat the hell out of the demon and do what ever it took to kill him. And if the devil died...

"You son of a bitch!" Kakashi's double grabbed the devil the his horns, ready to attack again when the devil bucked him upward, then grabbed by the neck. The demon drew his free arm back and punched him in the stomach, his strength sent the mirror flying backwards, landing right next to Kakashi and Iruka.

'Damnit! I have to get him away from these two!'


	19. Chapter 19: The domino effect part 2

Chapter 19: The domino effect part 2

"I have no clue." Gai said in disappointment. "Though Lee was always a bit systematical in the way he chose these types of things so you know it couldn't be random. Just think about Lee hard enough, it will come to you."

Neji sighed, this was harder then he thought it would be. Why didn't he know his teammate better? "Thanks anyway Gai-sensei." With his hands in his pocket, Neji turned and walked away, Kiba trailing behind.

The usual sounds of construction rang through the air of Konoha as it had been for 6 months strait now. Rebuilding a whole village wasn't a quick job, especially when supplies and materials were now somewhat scare and hard to produce. That made it more expensive, and an even larger burden for SDI. Kiba had never realized how much it took, landscaping, development, services, all of that and more he had to mange and divide profits among evenly, in all budgeting had to go 10 different ways. And he constantly had to decide which was more important since there was scarcely enough money to give to all once. That's why he was happy when Konoha started taking missions again, that decision was made last week, it would lighten the load no matter how much or little it would help.

"So, what do you think, statistics wise, would catch Lee's attention?" Kiba asked.

"We know that Lee came up with this combination the day after he passed the genin exams." Neji commented. "Do you think that helps?"

"It's Lee, everything about him helps." Kiba pushed down his ears against his head, the noise was starting to get to his much more developed sense of hearing. 'I'm getting a headache...'

"Hmm...that was the day we were assigned to our teams isn't it." That gave Neji an idea. "You think the next number could be something about me?"

"That's a possibility." Kiba nodded, still holding his ears. "You should probably check in see if you two have something in common, statistically I mean."

"...That gives me an idea."

! - ! - !

"Come on, we have to hurry!" Naruto ran as fast as he could through the trees growing through out the swamp, trying to reach Shukaku and the immensely large muck demon. He had to get there to help Gaara, he couldn't fight against something like that. The Muck demon was made of liquid, Gaara's earth element abilities were weakened by water, it was the simple common sense that dirt plus water made mud.

'He's so fast, I can't even keep up with him.' Even in spite of the curse seal invoked, Sasuke still managed to run at his normal speed which was usually faster then Naruto. He found that strenuous use of his muscles and expending energy helped to relieve the pressure pushing outward from inside of his body, even though he couldn't do enough to get substantial relief. He was way behind Naruto and struggling to keep up.

Shukaku, still standing on his hind legs, took an apprehensive step back from his enemy. This was really starting to look bad, especially since it had grown to about double his own size. "Die now humans." The Muck expanded upward into a wave, and crashed down onto Shukaku. Shukaku was slammed down hard on to his back, sliding along the ground a substantial distance and leaving behind a trail of flattened trees and mud that lay below the surface of the small body of water.

He came to a stop right in front of Naruto and Sasuke, who jumped on to his shoulder as he rolled off his back and on to his feet. "Hey wait...he doesn't have a medium this time." Naruto noticed as he grabbed on to Shukaku's ear and planted his feet firmly on the large headphones hanging off the back of the badger's head.

"He doesn't need one, he's using the music as a way to keep himself in control." Sasuke managed to force out strenuously as he fell to his knees, his arms wrapping around his torso. 'I...can't take this pain...' "Ahaaaaa!"

"Sasuke! Are you ok?"

"It's too much!" Sasuke shouted, his body couldn't handle the power being produced, it hadn't gotten use to the seal. A lot of it was being given off, there was a deep blue and purple haze of Chakra being visibly discharged 'Now...I know how...Konohamaru feels.' He knew he had to find away to get this energy out of him before he was ripped apart, and from what he'd seen there was only one way. Sasuke forced himself to steady his arms while he preformed a complex set of hand seals "Overclocking."

"Sasuke, you too?" Naruto watched as the golden light rose in a bright pillar from beneath Sasuke and his shadow grew outward into a reflection of a clock, the rotation of the hands grew so fast that it became just a blur right before the light faded and the image shattered and disappeared. By the time he could see Sasuke again he was covered in the tent of dark blue aura. "Are you ok?"

"Fine." Sasuke looked down at his hands, he could no longer feel the pressure as he did before. It worked, his body could handle the seal now.

"I need you to find a way to harden that demon." Shukaku said, knowing he wouldn't be unable to use some of his more powerful abilities with Naruto and Sasuke on top of him, so he would serve as a way to defend them until the two of them hardened the demon. That's when he'd attack. "Naruto, Sasuke."

The Muck demon screeched loudly, lifting it's dripping hand and slamming it down on Shukaku head, Shukaku was knocked to the ground, but immediately he opened his mouth and blew out a large ball of sand toward the muck. The muck shot out an even larger ball from it's body, striking down the ball of sand and sending both projectiles slamming into Shukaku's side as he tried to get up. "Ouuffhh!" After being knocked back down Shukaku jumped backwards off the ground and landed on his feet. "You two need to do something now, I can't fight this thing!"

The muck demon began melting into the ground fast enough to appear to be falling, within 2 seconds it was half it's former size. "Don't resist!" it called out, black mud rising from under Shukaku and wrapping around his legs. Spikes protruded from below, pressing against his stomach...then fired at Shukaku, who easily blocked with a wall of hardened sand. But then the Muck demon lifted it's arm again, this time forming the same large spikes in it's fist and driving it down on the trapped badger.

"We need to attack now!" Sasuke clasped his hands together, the blue aura flaring up. Using Ice would be easier to harden the demon's body and quicker then fire, and since his normal jutsu came out completely wrong before then maybe if... "Reverse Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He drew in a deep breath and blew out wall of blue flames upward careful not to hit Shukaku. The fire proliferated over the demon's arm and froze it completely solid. Shukaku lifted his paw and smashed through the ligament with one swipe, smirking devilishly, it worked.

Naruto stretched out his hand to his side, forming a swirling ball of usually blue Chakra now a growing red Rasengan. It expanded outward much larger then it's normal bounds, now a black core surrounded by an outer orb of deep red floating above his palm. "Eat this demon!" He drew his clawed hand back and threw the supercharged Rasengan at the mass of black mud, the red energy moved fast, driving itself into the center of the demon...and then the Muck disappeared "What!"

"!" Shukaku's ear's perked, he was able to hear something coming up behind even with the headphones blaring music. He tried to jump upward abruptly but his legs were still bound by the sticky mud, Naruto's Rasengan was launched into his back, knocking him to the ground with a wave of discharging energy. "What kind of Jutsu is that..."

"Abandon all hope humans, your resistance is futile." The muck shouted, it had some how moved at a speed that almost looked instantaneous. It re grew it's severed arm easily, then came after the fallen Shukaku, throwing it's whole body on to him and covering him up to the neck with itself even with half of it underground binding him by the legs.

Shukaku howled in pain, it was crushing him and he felt particularly grateful that it didn't reach his head... "Naruto, Sasuke, do something now or get off."

"Reverse Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke blew out another wave of the blue flame, sweeping over Shukaku from the neck down and incasing him in a thick overline of ice.

'H-He just froze over Gaara's entire body with one breath!' Naruto looked down at the muck demon plastered in ice over Shukaku, even the part that had bound him by the legs. "Whoa... Uh Gaara, I can't do anything with out hitting you. And...are you ok?"

"He has fur dobe."

"Oh yeah..."

"Just wait." Shukaku used his strength to break free from the hold and jump upward into the air.

"Alright!" Naruto lifted his hand above his head, swirling his red Chakra into another supercharged Rasengan. He grabbed on to the orange headphones to keep himself from falling "Your not getting away from me this time!" Naruto let out a strained roar as he threw the Rasengan downward to the ground and into the frozen Muck demon, followed by a loud detonation and frozen chunks of the demon washed in with discharging energy.

"It's reforming, Naruto, Sasuke." Shukaku called up, knowing they couldn't see from their current position.

"Right." Sasuke abruptly jumped off of Shukaku, followed by Naruto who was a little confused but got the hint.

'Now that they're out of the way...' Shukaku dove headfirst toward the ground, throwing his body into furious spin. The black glow from the lines in fur grew brighter along with the tan aura from Overdrive. "Shukaku Auger Ninpo!" His body shifted into tons and tons of quickly hardening sand that became a huge rotating spiral drill. Shukaku roared as his body drove down on the now seriously outsized muck demon pulling itself back together bellow.

"Holy Crap..." Naruto watched from a contrarily safe distance away. "Hey, you can still hear the music!"

! - ! - !

This wasn't working out well at all, infact it wasn't working out at all. Kakashi was trying to protect Iruka from an obsessive demon, and his double who was also trying to protect Iruka by killing of both of them. Kakashi wasn't sure if the double grasped the concept that if he killed the demon, he killed Iruka. So that raised the question, how do you fight this thing? You can't...

Kakashi clasped his hands together and immediately he went up into a cloud of smoke, throwing off the approaching demon when he found that Kakashi and Iruka had disappeared, leaving the copy behind. The devil growled and attacked him, slashing him across the chest with his claws. The doppelganger took the blow and jumped back a few feet 'How am I suppose to hurt it with out hurting Iruka?'

"Retsu ha Geki no jutsu." The devil held a hand outward a torrent of razor sharp wind followed.

'That's Iruka's Jutsu, How did it learn that?' "Mirror." The doppelganger held his hands outward and a mirror appeared, the wind struck the newly formed glass and bounced back into the unsuspecting devil.

"!" Devil was swept backwards in his own attack and thrown to the ground, which in turn drew a small cry of pain from Iruka, and revealed Kakashi's position. "There..." Devil looked back.

"Damn." Kakashi sat Iruka down against the wall, but by the time he turned around he was being knocked back by a sharp ram onto his torso by devil's shoulder. 'It's gotten a lot stronger already...' Kakashi was thrown into the wall hard enough to leave an imprint in the rock 'And his Chakra is already visible and he's not even doing anything.' He grunted loudly, feeling a strong punch driving in to his stomach. Kakashi pushed himself out of the way of a second, but the demon came after him persistently.

Devil stopped, thinking of a better way to do this, he out stretched his wings "Retsu ha Geki Ninpo!" The black wings started flapping violently, sending a heavy blast of wind on to Kakashi. Or at least he would have if he hadn't been suddenly bound by a wire cast from the doppelganger to his left.

"Persistent..." The doppelganger had to refrain from using some of his more power abilities, being a mirror he could have come up with some very interesting ones. And he wasn't to happy that he'd just saved Kakashi but Iruka was in range, at the moment this seemed to be all he could do to stop the demon, which wasn't working since with Devil's strength he easily broke free and came after him. '!' He tried to evade but the devil caught him, seizing him by the neck and slamming him face down painfully to the ground.

"Fine, then I'll try it again, Retsu ha Geki Ninpo!" Devil outstretched his wings again.

The doppelganger's eyes widened... 'Sorry Iruka...But...'

"Invulnerable Mirror." His body lost all color, becoming blandly black and white with shades of gray to define certain things... The strong winds tore down over him from the Devil ripping into the ground with a thick cloud of dust and water rising up and covering them both. But all of it again was reflected back on to Devil, sending his body flying upward in the winds, being ripped and torn at by his own attack.

"What-Was that?" Devil landed a few feet away, bleeding from large cuts on his torso where he had taken most of attack.

The double returned to normal, panting heavily and feeling a lot weaker from using the ability. It was more of a test of his limits, even through he could reflect attacks he still took some damage from them. So he'd been practicing a mirror that would reflect anything thrown at him, the good news was that it worked, the bad news was that it took a lot of chakra, more then he was readily able to give. "It still hits Iruka even if it's mirrored?"

"Damnit!" The blue Chakra on the demon flared as Devil roared in frustration, this was taking way too long...

A golden light overpowered the other, illuminating every inch of the underground cave...

"I-Iruka?" Kakashi watched idly as Iruka pulled himself up from the ground, using the wall for support, but what was more defining was that his brown eyes glowed from an invoked Overclocking. "Your awake?"

"How long was I out?" Iruka reached on to his back and withdrew the folded 5 point, it looked like a sword in that state. "What happened to me? I feel like a feel off a cliff."

"That idiot--" The doppelganger called out. "Knocked you out."

"You do realize that your insulting yourself also?" Kakashi snorted.

His copy rolled his eyes. "I'm not even the same species, it doesn't apply."

"Enough!" Iruka shook his pounding head "I don't need this right now...?...hey, is that the same demon!"

Devil looked over him, something was really different, so much so that he could feel it. Iruka was somehow stronger? Much stronger...Devil's brown eyes grew larger, 'What's...happening to me?' He just felt his bloodlust double, whatever Iruka had just done to himself it was driving him crazy...he had to at least have a taste... "Iruka."

"So if you guys hit this demon, then I'll get it?" Iruka sighed, Kakashi just explained the situation to him, and things just couldn't get any worse? He already felt like hell, barely standing as it is, "Dose the same apply to me?"

Kakashi shrugged.

"Look's like there's only one way to find out then." Iruka extended the compacted 5-point from one single blade into 5 with one flick of his wrist, glancing carefully over the familiar demon's new form.

Devil stared at him almost as if he was frozen, he couldn't describe what he was feeling...he was forcibly knocked out of daze by a strong punch to the stomach from Iruka, he fell backwards and slid to a stop a few feet away.

"Feel anything?" The doppelganger asked.

Iruka, still very confused on which Kakashi was who, shook his head "I didn't feel anything at all...great, am I the only one who can fight this thing?"

"Oww, Damnit...Iruka!" Devil stretched out his wings and floated off the ground, then rushed through the air at the man. Iruka jumped up a few feet and drove his foot into the approaching demon's head, hard, Devil fell to the ground with a large splash but quickly rose again 'He is stronger, and quicker...' Devil drew his hand back and forcefully slammed his palm into Iruka's face and lifted him off the ground painfully by the head.

'What are you/ Iruka clinched the horns protruding from Devil's head, pressing his feet against his chest and flipped backwards out of his grasp and in to the air, "I don't know if this will work but here goose nothing." While still in mid-air decent, Iruka drew the 5 point back by his side with one hand, ready to throw "Retsu ha Geki Ninpo!" He thrust the blade outward as if he was going to attack but stopped when he should have released it, and instead of it being thrown outward an almost transparent copy made entirely of wind launched at the demon.

This managed throw everyone off, including Devil, who was stuck in the torso by the wind projectile. Though it didn't hold it's form and disappeared after striking the opponent, it's initial hit left a large gash across his chest making it clear that that it wasn't just a distraction. Iruka, still falling, drew the 5 point back again and launched another projectile, then another and another, each moving fast enough to be unavoidable and hitting the demon. Iruka landed, dropping to one knee from fatigue. 'Is this Overclocking effect on me? Lower stamina?' Iruka, already overwhelmed and knocked out once, couldn't find the energy to launch another attack.

Devil looked down it himself, he had to admit, that hurt like hell. But despite the pain and the haunting amazingly overpowering urge for the man's blood and Chakra that Iruka in Overclocking gave him. He was actually enjoying this, it was confusing to him, but still...The pointed ears twitched lightly causing Devil to look up "Get strong Iruka, because next time..."

Rrreennnngaaaaaaa

The ceiling burst open and Shukaku, still in auger form, came driving down hard. Luckily he pulled himself out of easily enough and landed on his feet above them. With that very large distraction, Devil had disappeared again...

Shukaku's body disbursed into a cloud of smoke and Gaara emerged, still with headphones around his ears that he quickly pushed down. "Kakashi, Iruka...Kakashi?" It didn't take him long to figure out what was wrong with this picture, or to spot what didn't belong. He pointed to the Kakashi on Iruka's left. "Your the demon."

The Kakashi double sighed and rubbed the back of his head, a light smile crossing his lips. "You found me so quickly huh? You must really be getting better, last time you couldn't tell a thing." he joked.

"Last time?"

The doppelganger shook his head, knowing as much as he wanted too he'd better not stick around a group of demon hunters, being a demon and all. "Ask Iruka...well, it was nice you again Iruka-sama, see ya." His body completely disappeared with those last words, that's what it looked like at first glance, but he was just moving at an extremely fast speed.

"Iruka-sama?...Hey wait!" Iruka called out, but it was too late. 'Hmm...'

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"I don't know, what could Lee and I possibly have in common?" Neji asked, looking through a few record books taken on his old class by Iruka. It was mostly numbers, but that's what he was looking for... "Hmm..."

Kiba looked over his shoulder, reading over the pages from there... "Hey wait, I think I saw one number that was the same. Go back a page."

Neji turned to the previous page, one containing grades. "What is it?"

"No, go back another one."

Neji complied, flipping back one more page. This one was a continuation of general information about each of Iruka's students, it'd been going on for 4 more pages before this. Kiba placed his finger down on a column, then trailed it down that same row "Here, the birthdates. A lot of us were born in the same year, most of the class. See, the very last digit is almost always 4."

"That could be it, but do you really think Lee would use something like that?" Neji asked.

"Maybe, he was in a hurry to make up this combination from what I could tell." Kiba said with a light shrug, "What about this one, 4 other people were born in the same month as him. It says 4, isn't that April? That's a lot of 4s. Lee would probably use some part of his birthday in a combination, why not the number that comes up the most?"

"That might just be it." Neji agreed.

So they had three numbers, 4,7, and 4, that meant only one number remained...

"Wow, we're really close." Kiba said "I guess if we broke it open now it would ruin the surprise, after all, it took as 6 months to get this far...!"

"Arfff!" Akamaru barked loudly from a top Kiba's head, then he started growling.

Kiba nodded "Yeah, I smell it too..."

"What is it?" Neji glanced back at the two, by the way they were acting it couldn't have been good. "Is it a demon?"

"I'd know this scent anywhere. It's not just any demon, we got Ju Kama bugs coming from bellow." Kiba told him "Lots of them."

"How far away?"

"5 minutes or so." Kiba's nose had grown so developed that he could detect very strong scents from a very long distance away. "We better move, we can't fight those things here, and there coming right for us."

"We'll go for the river, if they're coming from underground then the water should throw them off at least a little." Neji stood up, heading for the door of his study..."Kiba, have you noticed something about these insects?"

"That they keep coming after us." Kiba moved with quick steps toward the door at the end of the library, they had to move fast if they wanted to get ready.

"No, something more specific." Neji descended the stairwell and passed through the doorway to the familiar main corridor of the first floor. Knowing that the quickest way to the river was to go through the armory and out of the back door. "It seems almost like every time we learn something about Lee or gain a resource, they come after us."

! - ! - !

! - !- !

Kiba jumped into the waist high waters of the river, standing on the flat rocks under the waterfall. "Maybe it's a coincidence." Kiba said.

"Most of these insects have been alive for hundreds to thousands of years, they're too smart for coincidences." Neji climbed on to the rock next to him.

"I thought you said it was a hive-mind, how big an insect's brain?"

"These aren't regular insects, each of their brains are connected telepathically to form one large mind. With who knows how many insects the size of the mind could be immense. One mind that inquire thousands of years of Knowledge...What are we fighting against?"

"So the last times when we fault against them and almost lost, what do you think they left for?" Kiba asked. "They probably could have killed us."

"Hive mind, we probably killed the single one in charge of that group. So they retreated, or where called back, I'm sure some type of hierarchy is in place with these insects...How many do you think are coming this time?"

"I'm not sure but can say more then last time..." Kiba lifted his nose into the air, "Get ready, there here. Akamaru use Gijyu Ninpo." Akamaru jumped off his head, landing on the rock next to Kiba and rising off of his heels. With a small growl and a outburst of smoke, Akamaru had changed into an nearly exact image of Kiba.

With a sound resembling a hard rain, hundreds of bugs rose out of the water all at once, continuing to rise in scores, one after another. "Oh man...Neji, you got anything we can use for these, Because I'm kinda going on instinct."

Akamaru held his hands out in front of him, cuffing them together with a deep breath. He used his Nagedeppo, the attack he'd learned from the demon pups on their first mission. It had been refined and fine tuned in his practices with Kiba, enough to get the current result. There was a loud and spontaneous combustion into the crowd of insects forming before them, it was small and localized, throwing flames out a few feet.

The insects grouped into a large orb before them, Kiba's first comparison was that it was the size of his room. Now that they were all in a group together, Akamaru tried his Nagedeppo again, and missed by a few feet since the attack still was hard to control. A loud buzzing sound radiated from the bugs, loud enough to hurt Kiba's ears and to give a warning to the three of them that an attack was coming. The insects shot upward into the sky, flatting into one large plane above them, it was enough to block out the sun and cast a large shadow over the land.

"They're going to suck us in like last time." Kiba drew back apprehensively, staring up at the insects swirling into a gaping vortex. He could feel the pull growing stronger with each second as they moved faster and faster. "What do we do?"

"Hit the center with everything you've got, if we disrupt that then everything else will follow." Neji felt himself being drawn up along with water dirt from the banks of the river. Akamaru held on the rock he was standing on while Kiba and Neji let themselves be sucked into the vortex . "OniKen!" Neji drew his left arm back, his first glowing with white Chakra. After 2 months of doing nothing but training, Neji had learned a few useful demon techniques, this was one of them. Neji thrust his fist forward, throwing out a barely visible shockwave into the center of the swarm. A ripple was sent outward along the perfectly aliened demons similar to water's surface but the pull only continued. "Just...a little more."

"OniGijyu shinto." Kiba stretched his arms outward, glowing in a black energy, and clinched his hands into tight fist that pushed the energy out of his knuckles in long claws that extended at least a 3 feet outward, much longer then previously possible for him. A roar forced it's way instinctively through his mouth as he slashed furiously into the center of the whirlpool where it was the weakest.

Unfortunately since the insects were larger in number it took more damage to stop the attack, more then they could mange to produce. Kiba and Neji were pulled into the swarm of Ju Kama, which instantly became ravenous and crowded around them, though individually the bugs couldn't do much damage even with it's powerful pincers and teeth, together...

"Urhhhhhaaaaaa!" Kiba slashed away with the long OniGijyu shinto claws, digging his way out of the swarm until felt himself falling.

Neji came from behind and caught him, both of them falling into the river with a large splash..."Ok, this isn't going to work." Kiba stood up in the high waters, and almost immediately blood started seeping from every part of his body from the Insect's last attack. "We don't have techniques that can fight against these bugs, or at least I don't."

Neji surfaced audibly from beneath the waters, pushing a few strands of hair from his eyes. Akamaru, with jutsu worn off, swam over to them and climbed customarily on to Kiba's head and a waited orders. Neji stared upward at the swarm, the insects flying around in a disorganized mass as they always did before or after an attack...'Hmm...' "I have a Jutsu that might work, but there's a problem with using it while fighting these demons. If I try it as I am, it's going to take time to generate chakra. The Ju Kama bugs always attack when you or I start to build Chakra, so you would have to hold them off."

'Generate? How is it possible to Generate chakra, I thought you could only use what was already there?' "Hold them off, I can't fight the damn things as it is...any other options?"

"I could use Overclocking, but that's a risk in itself." Neji said, "What do you think?"

"If you have to use it, I'd probably have to do it to." Kiba wiped the blood from his forehead with his wrist, for such small insects they did draw a lot of blood. The mass of Ju Kama bugs began coming together, becoming organized again meaning that another attack was coming. "If there's no other way then..." Kiba pressed his hand together and utilized a rather long set of hand seals though notably quicker then Neji. "Overclocking!"

A pair of golden lights shined over the two in result, a set of shockwaves was forced outward that sent strong ripples over the water's surface. "!Ahhhhhhh!" Kiba fell to his knees with his arms clinching his torso tightly, the slowly flowing waters rose over his head as he sunk deeper and deeper until just the tip of his ears were visible... a watery scream sent bubbles rising to the surface with a burst of black Chakra, and a werewolf jumped out of the river, still wearing Kiba's clothing though much tighter fitting. He Landed gracefully on it's surface by using that excessive Chakra to keep from sinking.

"Kiba?" Neji looked up at him with glowing white eyes, a clear effect from the clocking of water from the wet fur on to Neji, then let out a loud bark. Akamaru promptly climbed off his head. "I guess that's a yes."

Neji activated his Bakyugan with a small amount of pain, causing the veins around his eyes to rise slightly and the glow of his eyes to intensify...'I...can see everything..!' His bloodline had advanced considerably, no blind spots, it was in higher definition then his normal vision making everything seem surreal, his hearing increased, as well as the range... "Get ready Kiba, they're coming."

The buzzing sound that was always present grew louder as the insect's wings moved faster, from the mass a burst of strong winds pushed towards them in the form of a white blast. Kiba roared and held his hands outward, catching the blast and halting it completely, it seemed impossible to stop air currents, they should have just flowed around him. With his Bakyugan Neji could see that the werewolf was using his Chakra to keep the air currents at bay 'That's...amazing...'

Kiba drew back one arm and slashed across the contained air with his claws, forcing the wind to shoot back at the insects with a fair amount of invisible Chakra use involved. The air tore through the circular mass the swarm had grouped into, scattering most and tearing apart a fair amount as it passed through. It was effective, very effective!

'Now's the perfect time!' Neji clasp his hands together, extending two fingers and closing his eyes in concentration. "OniKi kuji kiri!" Neji held his hands upward toward the sun and then abruptly pulled them back, dragging down 5 large rays of golden light from some place hidden by the sun's glare. The bright, very visible rays drove down from behind into the still disorganized swarm, upon first touch, scores of the swarm fell from the sky. Neji had absorbed the solar power of the sun, then added his Chakra to generate the attack, how it appeared behind the swarm had been apart of the demon influence since it was a demonic Jutsu.

It was working, for the first time they were wining!

Kiba let out another growl as he sprang into the air in spun dizzily in to his Gatsuuga, only to be knocked back by another burst of wind from the insects, only this time the bugs let themselves be carried into the current and sent themselves into the blast. Directly into Kiba, who was slammed down below the water's surface and unable to block the wind now that Chakra absorbing demons had infested themselves into it.

"OniKi kuji Kiri!" Neji drew his glowing white fist back and thrust it toward the insects holding Kiba down, a considerably larger and more visible shockwave burst outward and stuck the bugs. A large portion of the ones crowding Kiba were blown off, allowing to wolf to reach the surface with a strange sounding gasp for air. And it looked as if they had completely ripped off the barely fitting shirt Kiba still had on gotten past the fur since his torso was bleeding.

Kiba pounced on him and started licking him gratefully, "Hey! Hey! Get off me!" Neji pushed against his chest, trying get him off "Stop it! Not now!" Neji could have sworn Kiba was smiling, he probably was. "Focus Kiba Focus."

That's when Neji heard it, a completely indescribable sound he never heard before as if he'd just heard a dog whistle. Only he didn't hear it with his ears, it drifted into his head with seemingly no source...'What, what was that?'

The swarm regrouped into it's usual organized harmony, then ascended from the water abruptly. They were retreating, even though they still had high numbers and could put up a formidable fight. Though the reason for this behavior was never known it didn't matter since they were quickly out of reach of attack "They're leaving...? Kiba, did you hear that sound?"

Kiba only barked in reply.

Neji shook his head, of course he couldn't understand anything Kiba was saying.

"Hey Neji...uh and Kiba?" Sasuke jumped down into the water from the head of the waterfall.

"How'd it go?" Neji asked.

"It was a complete mess..." Sasuke looked up to the east at an odd looking black mass flying in the opposite direction. "What was that?"

"Ju Kama bugs."

Sasuke glanced back at the werewolf standing on top of the water, and effectively too considering this was a river, which had a current. "And what happened to Kiba?"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"So, Iruka loses stamina..." Neji picked up a damp towel and started scrubbing the dried blood from his gray fur. Kiba sat on the ground with his feet pressed together and his hands pressed against the ground between his legs, his claws were digging into the wood and his tail sweeping across the ground. With his Bakyugan still in full effect, Neji went work cleaning Kiba's wounds, a few of them were still there from before he transformed. They were on the still bare third floor, it was large enough to give his voice an echo. "The curse seal on Sasuke advances, Kiba's mutation advances..." Neji glanced over to Gaara "Nothing apparent happens to Gaara so it could be anything. And my Bakyugan won't deactivate."

"Is there any way to just turn it off?" Naruto asked laying sprawled out across the ground, he tried to lift his head but his back was hurting to much. "Owww."

"Didn't this happen to you before?" Sasuke asked. "During the storm, after you were struck by lighting?"

"Yes." Neji nodded "I'm sure it's connected some how."

"Any chance we'll figure all of this out right now?" Iruka asked.

"Very little."

"Well, we shouldn't dwell on it then, most of us know what's going to happen if we use the Jutsu, so we can weigh the risks on our own." Iruka rubbed the bandages on his shoulder, he felt like going to sleep...more like passing out, but he had to stay awake at lest until this meeting, if that was the right word for it, was over. "Some one said something about a set up?"

"I said we were set up." Gaara replied almost questioningly.

"Oh sorry, I was kinda out of it on the way here." Iruka rubbed the back of his head, which was also hurting mysteriously with no cause, it could only mean that was an injury obtained by Devil. Interesting. "What happened."

"There was a group of those demons, 5 or 6 of them." Gaara explained. "They sent one in to test our strength and skills. Then after the first one was dead and they saw what we could do, the rest of them ambushed us."

"They were huge too!" Naruto shouted, though it seem off that he would be talking this energetically with out the use of gestures, he couldn't move. "Gaara kick ass! And of course I did to, and uh...Sasuke did a lot." He said the last part blandly. "The point is, that our "client" was a fake."

"Wow, there never is a dull moment around here is there." The group looked back at the sound of a unrecognized voice.

Jiraiya was leaning against the doorway, holding a small book in his hand. "I came to find Kiba...but..." Jiraiya blinked a few times just to see if he was really seeing what he was seeing "Do you know your washing a really big wolf...not that I'm surprised by anything that happens here."

"Yeah, I know." Neji snorted.

"Those ears, and that Tail, those clothes, Is that him?"

"Yes, he's a werewolf."

"Should have figured as much." Jiraiya looked over Kiba, who didn't really seem to notice him. Jiraiya poked his head curiously as if to see if it was real, Kiba quickly turned around and growled at him. "Sorry, sorry, down boy, uh, nice dog?"

"Don't mess with him, this is hard enough as it is." Neji said, frustratedly scrubbing Kiba's torso.

"Well since Kiba is..." Iruka tried to think of the right word for it, after a few idle seconds he gave up on it. "I'm going to say incapacitated, so maybe I can help you. What did you need?"

"He was talking to me about how much money you guys needed to bring in since construction in Konoha is costing at lot more then anticipated. And you guys could barely handle the missions you have plus constant demon attacks on SDI. There's no way you could take on more." Jiraiya told them "So the only other way he figured to balance out how much is going to Konoha along the cost of running SDI with the budgeting of each of your departments was to expand business. He wanted me to help him out with ideas."

"Expand business?" Iruka asked.

Naruto shook his head "We can't handle any more missions, how are we going to expand?"

"Don't just stick to one field, you guys have to resources to get into a lot of other markets beside killing demons." Jiraiya explained "Like production for instance, or retail, hell, anything you want you can make a profit with if you do it right. All of you already have a names for yourselves and I see you have extra space."

"It sounds plausible to me, but who's going to handle all of this?" Kakashi asked.

"You guys, of course I'll help but you are going to have to do a fair amount of the work"

"Where would we start?" Iruka inquired.

"Well first, since your not officially Konoha shinobi, you should probably change clothes." Jiraiya paused and thought about it. "Better yet, your SDI, you should have your own uniforms, or at least something with a logo. Everybody knows who guys are anyway."


	20. Chapter 20: SDI, bigger, better, bolder

Chapter 20: SDI, bigger, better, bolder.

7 months, 5 weeks, and 10 hours later.

"So we're going all the way around the building, bottom to top." Naruto asked, just to confirm. An anticipated smirk crossed his lips as he shifted around the new black forehead protector, completely black, the metal included, which made the bold letters SDI in white stand out. Though adamant at first about trading in his regular orange clothing, Naruto now wore a black jacket suspiciously _similar_ to his old one with SDI in white letters on the back. Under it he wore a white shirt with black pants. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."

"You think we can do it, there are a lot of people here." Konohamaru said with a voice that wasn't sure. He was wearing the same forehead protector, the same blue scarf, but now with a black shirt baring SDI on the back along with a pair of white shorts. They hadn't decided much on a uniform, more of a color scheme of black and white and a logo.

Naruto and Konohamaru stood with their backs against the back wall in side the Konohamaru's room, on opposite sides of the large flame under the Konoha symbol engraved in the wall. Their intent was to search through out the whole SDI building for a demon in disguise, and it wasn't Kakashi's doppelganger. Instead something hiding as a human. "On three." Naruto knelt down, ready to go. "1...2." He looked over at Konohamaru, who was also ready. "3!"

With that, both of them dashed toward the door in the head of the room, Naruto reached the stairs first and abruptly made sure he was in front of Konohamaru so the boy wouldn't pass him. In an effort to save time he kicked it open and landed into the familiar main hall on the other side, the much larger main hall. It was filled with people, no surprise to Naruto and Konohamaru, as usual because of SDI's growing expansions. A few of them were from extremely far away villages, others were from places a little closer, all of their reasons for being here were different, some clients, some making business proposals, either way Iruka most likely had his hands full.

They both paused... "Ok, this is going to be a little harder then I thought." Naruto scratched his head, "Where is Kiba when you need him?"

Konohamaru and Naruto waded through the sea of people, trying their best to look over each one they came across as thoroughly as possible, but that wasn't easy since there were so many. How could they tell this demon apart from everyone else? If they couldn't do that then-- "!" Konohamaru felt a person brush past him, which wasn't unusual, but the strange push that felt like a slight breeze. He turned around, the closest person behind him was a man in a suit who was looking down at him strangely. But who wasn't?

The man's body seemed to jump though he didn't move, it was as if Konohamaru was seeing double for a split second, a ghost like transparent double that was side by side with the man. "!" Konohamaru pointed an accusing finger at him. "That's the guy!" When he said that the man flinched, turning to run, but Konohamaru dived forward and drove his shoulders into the back of his legs.

The man fell on his face and Konohamaru jumped on his back, retrieving the special kunai Kisame had given him and pressing against the back of the man's neck. Much to the surprise of passing patrons who stopped and crowded around, Naruto had to push his way through. "Alright demon guy! We know it's you, stop hiding." Konohamaru directed.

When Konohamaru started applying pressure, the man, no demon, started to get nervous. "Ok! Ok! Stop, stop, stop! I give up." The man pleaded in a shaky voice. His eyes narrowed, he had to find a way out of this and from the looks of this, there were none.

"Uh...Nobody ever gave up..." Konohamaru scratched his head "What do I do now?" he asked as he looked down at the hidden demon, who seemed to becoming blurrier and blurrier. "Hey, what are you doing?" A breeze blew upward, making Konohamaru gasp and shake his head, after a deep breath the distortion he was seeing seemed to fade, "!" Konohamaru drove the Kunai down and cut the man's head off completely, a very...explicit form of killing for Konohamaru but it worked.

"What was that about?" Naruto knelt down next to Konohamaru "You ok?"

"I'm fine." Konohamaru rose off of the body, shaking his head again. "..."

Naruto gave him a once over look "So you finally got over that blood thing?"

Konohamaru nodded "Yeah, I guess."

"So you can handle clean up?" Naruto asked, he was skeptical about it.

"Uh huh."

"...Ok..." Naruto looked around at the crowd they had drawn. "Hey, don't you people have work to do?" he asked, which drew a clamor from the people and prompted them to move on. "I gotta go find Neji, just tell me if you change your mind." Naruto didn't know that Konohamaru had gotten over his anxiety of blood, and if it happened so suddenly then it could come back just as quickly.

"Ok." Konohamaru nodded, watching Naruto walk away. Then he looked down at his hands, a small smile edging at his lips.

! - ! - !

Naruto looked around the library, finding it strange that even though the rest of the building was now busy with today's work of expanding that this was the only empty and quite room. It even echoed when he walked, generally caused by the fact that this room had also grown larger. The former 3rd floor was turned into a balcony with more books, leaving only few empty shelves yet to be filled. "Hey Neji."

Neji was sitting in the back of the room outside the door to his study in a chair, clothed in a short-sleeved white shirt that was open, showing off bandages around his stomach from a recent mission. His also had on a pair of white shorts and the same black forehead protector baring the SDI logo. "Interesting choice of uniform Naruto."

"Since you guys made me take off my jacket off anyway." Naruto snorted.

"Take if off? You just dyed it black."

"Yeah yeah, anyway." Naruto changed to subject, "We got rid of that demon."

"Really, I'm surprised you managed to do it so quickly." Neji sat up, "How did you do it?"

"Cut the guys head off."

"What? No!" Neji pulled himself out of his chair, careful not to move his sides "You can't kill it that way, it's a poltergeist demon."

"A what?" Naruto asked, "What's the problem?"

"You have to use energy attacks, elemental attacks, something like that." Neji, holding his stomach, made his way over to Naruto. "There is no way it could be dead."

"So what happened to it?"

"I don't know, it most likely ran way."

'Hmm...' Naruto remembered the blurry image he saw right before Konohamaru killed the demon. 'That must have been it running away.' "Well it's gone now, think it will come back?"

"Most definitely, but there's nothing we can do about it now." Neji sighed, he wish he could have been there, it would have saved them a lot of problems that would arise later. But there was no use worrying about it now. "Is Sasuke back?"

Naruto shook his head "Nope. He's been gone for like a week...Oh, What's with all the people, I thought all of that stuff was finished last week."

"Things wont quiet down for a while." Neji sat back down in his previous spot, relaxing a little. "SDI is still getting proposals from different businesses that want to go into partnership with us, in fact we brought a retail chain yesterday."

"You mean all those people are there for that? I counted like 50 on the way up here."

"Well, not everyone is here for that specific purpose. With expansion of a business come employment opportunities, we need people to fill positions like salesmen and managers to advisors and producers. We won't have time to do all of the things that come with the expansions so we're hiring. Of course, we're the only ones that are going to be hunting demons."

Naruto shook his head in understanding, 'I guess I'm going to have to get use to it for a while.' "I'm gonna go check on Konohamaru...oh and Kakashi is missing."

"PR mission."

"Oh."

! - ! - !

Sasuke looked around at the same crowds of people he'd seen when he left, this just never seemed to end. A battered, beaten and tired Sasuke dragged his way though the lobby, taking notice of how they all parted out of his way and looked on like he was the greatest thing they ever seen. The famous Uchiha Sasuke of SDI back from one taking on a dangerous monster, I guess he understood why they acted this way but that still didn't make it any less annoying.

He pushed his way into the main hall, wanting only to make it to his room, which he wished wasn't on the first floor of the moment, and fall head first into his bed. That or a full bathtub, but being as tired as he was he'd drown. '...' He gowned, pushing another person out of his way disregardingly, he really felt like crap right now. That was until he saw Konohamaru ahead of him, the boy was just standing there, looking around rather offensively though Sasuke didn't notice. "Konohamaru."

Konohamaru looked up, "Hey, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked over the boy, "What happened, your hands are bloody."

"Oh, a demon, but me and Naruto took care of it."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, he seemed surprisingly alright "Don't you want to...get cleaned up?"

Konohamaru shrugged "I guess so."

'I guess so? What's with him?' "Well just go to my office, the bathroom in there is closer."

Konohamaru looked around, then just went into the first door he saw.

"Konohamaru, that's Naruto's room." Sasuke called out. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I told you already damnit!" Konohamaru snapped, glaring back at Sasuke.

'Huh?' "What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked. "What the hell was that?"

Konohamaru shook his head and smiled again. "Nothing."

'Ok, he's covered in blood, he's...angry, what happened?' Sasuke looked on in bewilderment as the boy walked away, who seemed almost lost in the sea of people. '...He fought a demon recently, maybe that's what it is.' If he fought a demon then it was most likely with another member of their team since no one would let him do it by himself, and he knew Neji was still injured so that left Kiba.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Kiba shifted around the pen in his hand, sitting at a desk in his office along with 5 other people. One of which was from the retail chain SDI had just brought, the other 4 where from similar business endeavors. He was wearing a white jacket very similar to his old one, a gray shirt underneath and a pair of black pants along with the black forehead protector everyone had. "God I hate math, why did Shikamaru have to leave, he was good at this type of thing."

Sasuke stood over his shoulder, not particularly paying attention to what was going on around him. "Did you go on any missions with Konohamaru lately?"

Kiba scratched behind his ear and shifted his tail slightly, it was really uncomfortable in this chair considering how he had to position his tail just to sit down. "No, but I think he and Naruto just went after one that got in, just a few minutes ago. Why?"

"Konohamaru's acting strangely, he's just wondering around covered in blood."

"Blood? I thought I smelled blood." Kiba seemed to become uncomfortable with that. "There shouldn't have been blood, it was a poltergeist. No wonder I didn't recognize it, I smell human blood."

"Human?" Sasuke was really confused now.

"A lot of human blood...and you said they just killed the demon?" Kiba asked, Sasuke nodded. "Oh man, they just made a really bad mistake. Most poltergeist demons take over something for a host, that's the only way they can effect anything. It must have taken over a human, if they killed that guy then the demon's still alive...somewhere."

"So where is it?"

"...I don't know, but it might still be around here." Kiba looked around his office, "Uhh sorry guys, we'll have to finish this latter." He said, standing up and pushing his chair in before shaking his tail around lightly. "Where is Akamaru when you need him?"

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

"To see if I can find that demon...hmm..." Kiba looked up toward the ceiling as he thought, trying to work out a plan. "My nose can't do it, so it looks like it's up to Neji's eyes."

! - ! - !

Konohamaru opened the door to his room, climbing down the stairs slowly and carefully. He looked around the dim lit shrine, taking short steps toward the center of the room. "I guess I can do this here, no one will hear me at lest..." That small smirk grew into a large smile. "And this--" He paused and turned around when he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs.

Sasuke stopped halfway and called out to Konohamaru "Konohamaru, I need to ask you something."

"Not now damnit!"

Sasuke winced, looking back at Kiba who only shrugged. "What's with you?"

Konohamaru sighed in frustration "Just leave me alone, don't you take a hint?"

Sasuke jumped down next to him, folding his arms. "Don't try to get out of this, just tell me what's wrong with you."

"Nothing just--" Konohamaru's body seemed to jump though he didn't move, it was as if Sasuke had seen double for a split second, a ghost like transparent double that was side by side with him for that small moment. "!"

Sasuke's eyes widened, and Kiba's nose flared. "Holy crap, his scent just changed drastically. The demon is still here, it's inside of Konohamaru!"

Konohamaru scowled, "Damn you bastards, you always come at the wrong time!"

"Get out of him." Sasuke growled, if looks could kill...

"The hell I will." Konohamaru smiled again, looking down at his blood stained hands. "I like this body, it has so much to offer. With something like this, I can kill every one of you SDI bastards." He reached behind him and pulled the two blue Kunais out from his waistband. "Yeah, I think I like this body..."

Sasuke grabbed Konohamaru by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground "Get out of him now!" He shouted. Konohamaru only laughed before his body started to pulse with a golden aura, Chakra poured into every muscle he had and gave him strength, enough strength to headbutt Sasuke and send him sliding backwards. "Damnit! Kiba, go find Neji and see if he knows how to get this thing out of Konohamaru."

Kiba turned and ran back towards the door, but stopped himself "What about you?"

"I'll handle him, just go." Sasuke said firmly, making Kiba keep going weather he wanted to or not. "Get out of him now and I'll make it quick."

"Why would I let go of something like this?" Konohamaru laughed harder "This body knows things about you, It know everything that's happened to you. Oh yeah, it knows where your brother is."

"What!"

Konohamaru took the opportunity to attack, drawing both of the knives back towards his left side and thrust them at Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke stepped to the side and kicked Konohamaru in the legs, sending the boy falling to the ground. Konohamaru rolled on to his back, quickly pressing the handles of the weapons together, creating the Chakra rope before he tossed it at Sasuke. Sasuke tilted his head to the side, watching it fly past in to the wall behind him. "Stupid." Konohamaru pulled the Chakra from the rope to the markings on the twin Kunai he was still holding. The second blade reeled back, slashing Sasuke across the face.

"Just because your in _his_ body doesn't mean I wont hurt _you_." Sasuke lifted his wrist and wiped the blood from his cheek.

"You love this body, you wouldn't--" Konohamaru was knocked on to his back by a strong punch to the face by Sasuke.

"I didn't say I wanted to, I just said I would. So make it easy on yourself and give up."

"I'm just getting started." Konohamaru flipped backwards on to his feet and out of Sasuke's reach. "This body has so much potential, so much power I can tap into." His Chakra flared up again, increasing his strength farther.

'I don't want to hurt him...I have to find a way to hold him." Sasuke clasped his hands together, about to do a hand seal but Konohamaru jumped on him. He was so much faster now, so fast that Sasuke could hardly keep up. 'I guess I'll have to hurt him a little.' Sasuke grabbed Konohamaru by the shoulders and threw him into the wall between two of the lit torches.

Konohamaru used Chakra to keep himself from falling off of the wall, though losing a little balance when he lifted one fist. Then he transferred most of the Chakra contained in his body to his left arm and dived at Sasuke, throwing a strong punch across his face. It was evaded when Sasuke caught his arm and slammed him down on the ground, using his other hand to push down his head.

Konohamaru, still holding strength in his left hand, easily broke free from Sasuke's hold and rolled over so that he was on top of Sasuke's back, "This body isn't as weak as you thought huh?" Konohamaru grabbed him by the neck with his still super powered left hand and started choking him.

"I know...his limits...as well as I know... my own." Sasuke threw his head back into Konohamaru's face, effectively forcing him to let go. With a sharp gasp for air, Sasuke thrust his elbow back onto Konohamaru chest and rolled over on his stomach, kicking Konohamaru up into the air with both feet. Then he finished the hand seals and drew in a deep breath "Reverse Goukakyuu no Jutsu." He spit out a ball blue flames, but he managed to aim the blast low enough to hit Konohamaru's leg and freeze part of the ceiling.

"!" Konohamaru hit the ground, unable to move his completely frozen legs. "Damn."

Sasuke, already standing by the time the boy landed, placed his foot on Konohamaru's back. "Stay down."

"I thought you said you knew this body." Konohamaru cringed and pushed outward, "Explosion!" From his body a rush of golden energy spreading out in every direction in the form of a sphere, being contained in the frame of the room the energy could only move two ways, back and forward. It meant a wall was coming at Sasuke that he had no way to defend against.

Sasuke had no choice but to stand his ground and block his face as the golden wall slammed into him. The first thing he felt was burning, then a sharp electrocution, it was like fire and lighting combined into one, and he had to admit it was powerful. Being already weakened from his previous mission he had to find away to defend himself or else... '...Uh...come on think!...' And in the middle of that searing pain an idea formed. "Ice wall!"

When Konohamaru heard Sasuke crash in to the rock wall he disengaged the attack, and though he had plenty of Chakra left he started to feel tired. Mainly because Konohamaru still needed more training to expend that type of energy, though it was easier for him then it was before. "Hn, One down, 6 to go."

"Not quite." Sasuke pushed a thick sheet of ice off of his body, watching it fall to the ground with a loud crash. "Wanna try it again?" He asked, right before his body disappeared in a small cloud of smoke only to reappear in front of the boy with a sharp knee to the stomach.

"You son of a bitch." Konohamaru held his torso tightly, crouching over a little with a strained look coming on to his face. "I'll take this place down, and all of you with it! Right now damnit!" Konohamaru's body began to glow with a light the same color of his Chakra.

"What are you--!" 'He's going to explode!" Sasuke grabbed Konohamaru's arm, but drew it back when he felt the same burning/electrocution feeling he felt during Konohamaru's explosion attack. Which was what he was about to do, Kamikaze with Konohamaru and take down this building in the process. "Stop it!"

"Make me!"

"Fine, I will." Neji came from behind, driving his index finger into a spot on Konohamaru's back, then proceeding to do the same thing with other places on his body. The light surrounding Konohamaru's body faded almost instantaneously and Konohamaru looked around in confusion.

"What did you just do?"

"Let's just say you wont be able to try that again." Neji shifted as if he was about to move, but he found his torso hurt to much... so he, quite visibly, gave up. "Iruka, now."

Iruka, clad in a black vest with a white shirt under it, black pants and the same forehead protector, dropped in from seemingly out of nowhere with a scroll in hand. Which he proceeded to wrap around Konohamaru before the boy, binding his arms in the process, could make a move. Then with a blur of speed Iruka landed in front of him, unrolling a second scroll and a paint brush staring to write furiously. "Ok Neji go ahead."

Neji preformed a few quick hand seals, clapping his hands together then thrust them forward toward Konohamaru. "Soul Release!" Before Konohamaru could say a word his mouth and eyes were forced to open wide, drawing out a painful sound as something was ripped from him, something transparent. It was a spirit, one with out any particular defining feature except for the yellow eyes. "Nice try demon."

"You humans can't even touch me." The demon snickered. "I'll be back, not one of you bastards will be left alive."

"What makes you so sure your leaving?" Neji smirked, watching the demon attempting to fly though the ceiling as it usually would have been able to, unfortunately it didn't work out. "I've sealed off the whole floor, you cant get out."

"Uh...what's going on?" Konohamaru blinked and looked around, trying to figure out why he was wrapped in paper. "Iruka, Neji...Sasuke?"

"Ok Naruto." Neji called out. "And remember, elemental attacks."

"How's this for elemental?" A cloud of black smoke erupted from one of the flames on the wall, a disguised Naruto revealed himself sitting crouched on the extinguished dish, his right arm held outward. "Katon Ken!" That whole arm erupted into raging flames, one of his new techniques. He jumped upward, pulling the burning fist back and driving it into the terrified ghost, and where he normally wouldn't have been able to touch the ghost, he easily incinerated it with one blow.

"What the hell!" Konohamaru, still bound by the seal, hopped angrily over to Naruto as he landed. "You put out my fire!"

"Relax, it's only a small one." Naruto shook his arm, waving away the flames. "What's the big deal?"

Konohamaru growled in anger "The big deal!" He jumped up and drove his head into Naruto's then proceeded to kick him, hard. "Those weren't supposed to go out!"

"Ow! Ow!" Naruto ran backwards in an attempt to get away. "Stop! Sasuke, do something!" He shouted, figuring that Sasuke could calm him down.

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "Konohamaru." He grabbed Konohamaru by the shoulder and pulled him back, then turned him around making sure Konohamaru was looking at least in his direction. "Stop." He knelt down next to the boy and looked him in the eye...then he smiled and ripped the scroll off of him. "Ok, go ahead."

A now free Konohamaru immediately sprang on to an unsuspecting Naruto, sending both of them tumbling to the ground from relinquished force where Konohamaru proceeded to punch Naruto repeatedly. "Those Punch fires Punch were Punch important Punch to me. Punch Punch And Punch you Punch put it Punch out! Punch!"

"OkokI'msorryletmegoletmego!" Naruto squirmed and pleaded, attempting to push him off though only able to when Konohamaru deemed that Naruto had enough. "Ow!"

Konohamaru snorted and climbed out off of Naruto, though still angry.

"What's with him?" Naruto sat up, rubbing the side of his face.

"This place was important to him." Iruka watched as Konohamaru hastily worked to relight the one empty dish. "After his grandfather died, Konoha was destroyed, and we had to completely renounce ourselves from the village, this was the only thing he had left of it."

"..." Now Naruto felt really bad about doing it...

"!" Naruto looked up, surprised to feel a rather strong earthquake and the fact there was a crowd of people now by the door. "Hey, what all of you doing?"

There was an upstart from the crowd, though the 4 of them could make out the word demon. Demon, which was most likely the cause of the earthquake.

"2 in on day." Iruka rubbed his head, this was becoming stressful.

_You humans think you can get rid of me that easily? A face protruded from the ceiling like an imprint, this was the same demon._

"Give it a rest." Sasuke sighed in annoyment "Your trapped down here, do you really expect to kill us?"

_We'll see about that._

"Oh come on, I just came back from fighting a swarm. I don't feel like dealing with you." Sasuke called out.

"I'll handle him."

Sasuke looked back, still unable to figure out how Gaara was always able to sneak up on him. "What?"

Gaara was warring clothing similar to his old ones, now they were all black. He also had the same black forehead protector tied around the strap to his gourd, and of course he wore the same orange headphones that conflicted with his red hair, meaning that the CD player was somewhere on his body. "He's in the walls isn't he? I can handle him."

He didn't have to tell Sasuke twice, infact Sasuke had already pushed through the gathered crowd and was half way up the stairs.

Gaara lifted his left hand into the air. "Move away from the walls." He gave a half warning to anyone it concerned before attacking. Just as his warning dictated, from the ceiling and every wall large spikes shot out, ones that were easily able to hit the target which was pushed back and fell from above...directly into the fire at the back of the room. "Simple."

The crowd looked on in complete awe, so this is what happened on a daily basis in SDI, exciting. "Don't you people have business to attend to?" Gaara didn't give anyone a second glance, he just walked past and returned to his room. After a few seconds Naruto ran after him.

"Looks like it's back to work." Iruka shifted around the collar of his white shirt and adjusted the black vest. "Did we decide on a uniform? I see everyone else is out of their usual attire."

"Do we really need one?" Konohamaru shrugged "We're all wearing black and white, and we got these, isn't that enough?" Konohamaru tapped the metal portion of the band on his head.

"Ah, I guess that's alright." Iruka picked up the clipboard he set aside surprisingly nearby for no one to notice and headed back upstairs, he still had a lot of people to see.

"Hold on, Is anyone going to tell me what just happened?" Konohamaru looked around and found that Neji was the only person left. "Neji?"

Neji found this interesting "You don't remember _any_ of it Konohamaru."

"Huh?"

! - ! - !


	21. Chapter 21:The real work stars now part

Chapter 21: The real work starts now part 2

This was odd, Itachi could say that much about it, his mind wanted to entertain the notion that this was a dream, but it wasn't, it couldn't be since he hadn't fallen asleep. He was sitting his now completely repaired safe house, his back resting against the black sofa, his head tilted upward and his eyes barely focused in a blank stare at the ceiling. All was silent, Kisame was off somewhere which that in itself was probably the reason it was so quiet, he didn't know or care where or why.

It was just so peaceful, oddly peaceful, it was never this peaceful. Not that he was complaining, he was more relaxed right now then he'd ever been in his life, relaxed and slowly drifting into a peaceful sleep. Itachi let his eyes start to close, each slow breath bringing him closer and closer to the rest he was seeking, every breath making him feel lighter and lighter, making him feel more and more like this would be best sleep he would ever have in his life. Even better then that one night with Kisame...

"Itachi!"--Kisame's voice came from some place outside of the house, probably him coming home.

Itachi didn't care what it was, he just wanted to keep drifting off. "Meh..."

"Itachi, Get up damnit!" Kisame's voice called out again, Itachi just dismissed it since he obviously couldn't careless about it. He just watched the ceiling start to blur and fade into a slow coming darkness, increasing sequentially as his eyelids drew farther and farther closed. "Itachi!" His darkening vision of the ceiling was suddenly switched with gray clouds and falling rain that had started to pool in his widen eyes. All centered around an inhumanly large level 3 Sharingan eye.

Itachi immediately awakened with a few quick blinks to bring his vision back in to focus, he was laying on his back on a half muddy ground. The Sharingan demon was standing over his body in the eerie form of his father covered in those large eyes over it's body, one in particular that protruded from the demon's palm was directly over his face. Or at lest it had been until Kisame tackled it off of him...His first instinct was the get up, but his burning lungs and his body's cry for air forced him to gasp, he couldn't even move. That's when it became apparent that he hadn't been falling asleep in his illusion, he'd just stopped breathing and nearly suffocated.

Kisame knocked the demon from Itachi but landed on his feet where it tumbled to the ground, he knew he couldn't fight something like this with head on brute strength, that strength took sight. He couldn't use any, so instead of trusting himself by just closing his eyes, he pulled down the blue headband over them and lifted the Samahada. "Itachi, are you ok?"

This was the second time Kisame had saved him from that demon. "I'm fine." Kisame heard Itachi's voice behind him, tired, weak and ridden with pants but regaining it's normal tone substantially. "Kisame, that's not me!" This is when things became confusing, he also heard Itachi's voice in the opposite direction of the previous one.

"How am I suppose to tell with out looking!" Kisame lowered his Sahamada slightly, but he quickly raised it again just in time to block a punch, he pushed who ever was attacking him back. "Itachi, your the only who can fight this thing."

"It's going for you." One of the voices yelled. "It's quick."

Kisame couldn't tell if the same person had said that last statement, both were so similar! He didn't even have time to try and figure it out, a sharp blow too his back sent him stumbling forward. He was alert enough to catch a fist flying toward his torso, but he immediately and lower his head a bit, reach up and grabbed another foot going for the back of his head. This didn't add up, there were two people attacking him. "Itachi! Why are you trying to hit me!" Kisame squeezed down tightly on the smaller fist he'd captured in front of him and tossed the two bodies as far away from him as his strength would allow him.

"I'm not." This time there were three voices saying the same thing, all of them surrounding him.

Kisame wasn't sure, so he just attacked everything in his path and hoped he didn't hit Itachi. Kisame drove his Samahada into the muddy ground in front of him, then he clasped his hands together with quick seals, enduring the blows to his back and his side attempting to make him waver. If it was one thing he knew about Itachi was that he himself was physically stronger, and though Itachi's attacks always _hurted_, Itachi was better suited with Jutsus. With a loud grunt from the stinging pain where he'd been hit during the process, Kisame drove his hands down on to the ground. "Tidal wave!" 'Sorry Itachi.'

In the darkness he felt the water uprising out of the shaking ground from his heals in walls he knew were at lest 10 feet tall from previous jutsu uses. The waves of clear blue water rushed outward from all sides, smashing through anything in it's path... He waited until the sounds of water died down, until no other sounds remained except for rain pounding in to the mud saturated ground... "Itachi?" Kisame slipped his finger under his grayish blue head band and pushed up off of his eyes. "Hey, if I..." Kisame looked around among the ankle high waters that covered the ground after his Tidal wave attack, he was surround by fallen Itachi's all identical. "No wonder I kept hearing...Itachi?"

Kisame was cut off by a blinding flash of blue light...

"Kisame!" Itachi, drenched from head to toe while trying to escape the man's Jutsu, landed behind Kisame with an audible splash just in time to catch him as he fell lifelessly backwards. Kisame's eyes were half lidded and unfocused, his mouth open slightly, he was completely dazed. Itachi slapped his cheeks lightly "Damnit, why did you have to open your eyes."

Itachi dropped Kisame harder then he intended to, then he jumped back right before the strange Sharingan demon came down on him. It was just using Kisame to get to him, to get him out of the way since he kept getting in the way, _every single _time. "What the hell are you?" Itachi reached outward and caught the Sharingan by it's neck, but he abruptly looked away just as he saw it's red pupils widening...Something was wrong, Itachi could see a bright white light flash on the horizon, the next thing he knew he was standing in a shapeless black void. 'I Didn't even look at it...it can inflict Mange Sharingan on me with out me even looking at it.' That explained a lot.

"Sight!" Itachi narrowed his now glowing eyes, his surroundings distorting into black swirls and reshaping back into his real settings. "What are you?"

"Sharingan Ninpo, Jutsu Seal." The voice of his father passed through the demon's lips as all of the eyes on it's body turned towards Itachi and flashed an illuminating red...the next thing Itachi knew he felt a part of himself going numb, but before he could even contemplate what had just happened the demon disappeared from his grasp.

'...How can I fight this thing?' Itachi looked around just enough to check for the demon, then he immediately went back for Kisame...only to find that what ever the demon did to him had worked, he couldn't use Jutsus...He didn't have time to deal with that, he could still use his blood line and he had to pull Kisame out of whatever his mind was trapped in to.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was raining, and he _loved_ rain. So much so that it became a habit for him to go up on to the roof and stare up at the sky, particularly glad just to let the small drops of water fall down on to him. Konohamaru just laid back, his hands behind his head and his eyes upward with a smile across his face. Good things always happened to him when it was raining, he never had a bad day during the rain...well except for his Grandfather's funeral, but Iruka had been able to comfort him well enough. But other then that they were all good, tides turned on rainy days, fights shifted momentum in the rain, and by his own admissions he'd never lost one while rain fell.

Whenever he sparred with Naruto for training he always seemed to win in the rain, he never won in anything against Naruto any other time. Konohamaru smirked 'Nee-chan is so cool.' he had to remind himself to challenge Naruto to a fight today.

"Konohamaru, what are you doing up there?" Naruto called up from the ground, his arm over his face to shield his eyes from the falling water. "It's raining really hard out here." He said, glancing to his left as Kakashi walked past him, he and his team just returned from fighting bat demons.

"Yeah I know..." Konohamaru's voice held a hint of forlorn with in his tones, he'd challenge Naruto later. It was only fair since he'd just came back from a mission.

"I wouldn't stay out too much longer, Iruka's gonna be mad if you catch a cold out here." Naruto said that last remark before he followed Kakashi into the building, which he immediately ducked his head and shook the stray water from the yellow strands across the lobby floor. "Hey! Hey!" Kiba wiped the stray drops of water from his face and shook them off of his black jacket since he just happened to be walking past when Naruto preformed that action of his.

"Sorry." Naruto said, sitting on the ground next to the couch where a _dry_ Gaara was sitting. "Where are you going?"

"Tracking mission." Kiba shoved his hands in his pocket, Akamaru settled in his zipped up jacket and his hood down around his neck since his ears were uncomfortable being pushed down for long periods of time. His tail was noticeably lower, almost between his legs, a tell showing that something was obviously wrong with him. "A 4 year old girl in one of the residences out side of Konoha was kidnapped, the mother says it was a demon and I have to find her before the trail is gone completely. And as you can see, it's _raining_ outside." He spoke with haste and hurried out the door, with good reason. Kiba seemed a little angry about this mission for what ever reason, or at lest he seemed mad.

"Good luck." Naruto told him solemnly, he'd need it... Naruto looked up at Gaara. "How are you the only one who's dry?"

"Sand." Gaara said in his usual manner. "You should go dry off."

Naruto stood up with a small nod before he climbed up off the pool of water he left on the ground and headed to the door behind the desk leading to the main hall. There was a light pause before his voice could be heard again. "I never noticed how huge this place was with out all those people."

! - ! - !

What gave his life meaning now? It was interesting what things popped up when Gaara was left to his own thoughts. Maybe it was because he decided not to sleep for the last two weeks, doing work, helping Iruka out among other things. Strange thoughts always crept into his head when he went with out sleep, not homicidal, but...strange, he was content to say not all of them bad.

Gaara pushed the headphones off of his messy red hair down around his neck, then quietly walked down the empty main hall in to his room. He found Naruto on the ground in the center of his room, pulling his soaking wet black pants off. "Sorry Gaara, I got lost. Did you know where my room was is my office now? I can't find it!"

'Is that why he's been sleeping here so much?' Gaara sat down on his bed, setting aside his CD player while leaving the headphones where they were.

Naruto stripped himself of his boxers, tossing all of his clothes in a scattered pile on the ground. "It's freezing in here." He pushed a stray strand of yellow hair off of his forehead that was dripping water, walking over to the closet to find a towel. "How can you stand it?"

"It just feels that way because your wet Naruto." Gaara said plainly.

Naruto ran the towel through his hair before wrapping it around his waist, then he jumped in to Gaara's lap. "Yeah maybe." He laid his still slightly damp head back against Gaara's chest where it was warm. "This place is really big now..."

"What do you mean?" Gaara laid back on to the bed, wrapping his arms around Naruto's stomach to keep him from falling from his chest.

"When we first started this last year, I just wanted to help Konoha..." Naruto held his head down a little when he said the last part, "Since Konoha was just a wasteland and I think the storm could have been my fault since I was the one that wanted to go back in time...But I thought it would be easy, just do a few missions..."

"You thought _this_ would be easy?" Gaara inquired.

"Not _easy_ but I didn't think it would be like this...after we started doing this for a while...it was so hard and it seemed like we were doing more and nothing we did was doing anything. I thought this would be impossible. I didn't think there was any way we could be able to help Konoha and that I was just going to tire and starve ourselves out trying."

"Then...why did you keep going, if you thought it was impossible?" Gaara seemed a little bit confused now, he didn't get it. If something was futile, something with little to no hope of working that could most likely get you killed trying. Something that may not have even made an impact...why try?

"I'm a shinobi for Konoha, I had to try and help."

"But there wasn't a Konoha at the time, the Hokage was even dead."

"Konoha's not just a place with a lot of buildings, it's the people...I learned that. The Leaf wasn't dead, I couldn't let it die, not after everything that happened."

"But you could have gotten killed, and you said you thought it was impossible." Gaara said questioningly.

"Yeah...But I love this place, I had to try even if it didn't seem like worth trying." Naruto tilted his head back and looked up at Gaara. "I didn't care if I died, there are things that are worth dieing for, especially if you love them."

Gaara paused for a moment, just starring down at Naruto...he wasn't sure if he understood it yet but... "Would you...die for me?"

"Yeah." Naruto said with out hesitation or the slightest change in tone that would say otherwise, he was completely sure of it. And he would have asked Gaara the same question, but...he wasn't sure if he wanted the answer. He was _Naruto_, no one would die for him... "..."

"Naruto..." Gaara he still didn't understand, how could some one have feelings so strong for him that they would give up their very life But on the other hand...maybe he did a little whether

he knew it or not, but he still didn't understand it. This was so confusing. "...I..."

"Don't worry about it too much Gaara." Naruto said in dismissal, he rolled over so that he was facing Gaara. "It's not that big of a deal."

"It...it is." Gaara subconsciously tightened his grip around Naruto, his hand traveling up the boy's back and settling in his blond hair. "Your talking about your life, you would give up something that important for...me?"

Naruto hugged Gaara lightly, laying his head against his chest. "..." He had to think about it for a moment, the thought of dieing wasn't inviting, in fact it scared him a little. "...Yeah."

Naruto was serious about this... "I...guess I would too." Gaara said defeatedly "Your the only thing that gives my life any meaning, with out you..."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto looked up at Gaara, staring directly into those green eyes that he liked so much. It was enough to make him wish his eyes were green. "You mean a lot of things, I mean, your _you_. That's really important."

"Not something as mundane as that, it's not."

"What! Come on!" Naruto pushed himself up abruptly enough to scare Gaara, his arms pressed firmly on the bed above Gaara's shoulders and veered down so that they were face to face. "Don't say that, your really important."

Gaara looked up at him with a strait face. "Why?"

...Ok, Gaara wasn't going to make this easy. "...The other reasons don't matter, your important to me. Just because you had to grow up like you did, around those bastards." He said that last part with a little bit of animosity "Doesn't mean you don't matter... Even if no one else cares, your important to me."

Gaara shifted his eyes away from Naruto, a very un-Gaara like look coming on to his face. He was either unsure or unbelieving. Naruto wouldn't let that stand.

"Hell, I'll prove it to you!" Naruto pressed his hands against the sides of Gaara's face, looking down on him with an oddly determined expression before he closed his eyes and pulled Gaara into a kiss. It was fiercer then usual, Naruto's tongue was moving almost fervently around the warm mouth. If Gaara could say he loved one thing about Naruto, it was his energy "If your ever wondering why again, just tell me and I'll prove it to you that your really important to me."

"If I need you to prove it to me, will you do that again?"

"Uh-huh."

After careful consideration, Gaara decided that he wasn't quite convinced. "Why?"

Naruto smiled impishly, giving him a quick kiss on the lips before he burred his face into Gaara's neck. His hands pressed against Gaara's chest, clinching the black fabric in his fist and forcefully pulling the shirt off of Gaara's back. Gaara had to lifted his torso up lightly to let Naruto do so, and though it was a bit of a hassle it was just easier this way since the alternative was ripping, that would mean Gaara would have to buy new clothes .

Even after it was removed Gaara still felt Naruto's hands against his chest, forcing him to stay down since he was clearly intent on making Gaara lay still.

"Don't move." Naruto said in a victorious tone that he spoke in when he'd just won a fight. His hands roamed across Gaara's torso, resting them on the boy's sides while he slid off of the bed. Landing on his knees before the other boy, his hands tightened around Gaara's torso and pushed down as Gaara tried to sit up. "Be still..." Naruto was almost taunting as his thumbs gently rubbed across the abdomen messagingly.

Naruto's hands trailed downward, his fingers slipping into the waist band of Gaara's pants and, a lot more calmly this time, he pulled Gaara's pants down to his knees. He lent over Gaara's knees and burred his face in to Gaara's lap, taking the hardening cock in to his mouth. "Na-Naru..." Gaara clinched his eyes tightly, feeling his hands drift uninhibitedly on to Naruto's head. Gaara still wasn't used to feeling things like this, he'd long since become accustom to pain, his body was even used to it. But something that felt like this, something pleasurable, he was really sensitive to. Even small, soft touches...so knowing this Naruto reached up and gently rolled his fingers over Gaara's nipples.

"Uhhaaaa..." Gaara moaned lightly, a small blush making itself apparent across his face, he had to restrain himself from pulling Naruto's hair too hard. He hated to admit it, but he was a little squeamish on count of his sensitivity to these types of actions. Though Naruto on the contrary seemed to enjoy watching Gaara's every reaction, how his face contorted and his eyes looked, how every muscle of the boy's body filled with energy that gathered with each second. He loved watching the usually stoic, cold Gaara like this. "Naru!"

Naruto lifted his head, removing all of Gaara's cock from his mouth save the head. His lips tightened around the soft flesh and sucked it lightly while he swirled his tongue skillfully around the warm erection, his thumbs playing along Gaara's nipples in gentle massaging touches. Soft pants and stiffed cries were growing more audible from the boy below him, which in turn signaled Naruto to pause and draw back from Gaara. "Heh Heh." He smiled with that same bright smile he always carried as he jumped on to Gaara's stomach before the boy could inquire anything from him.

"Naru?" Gaara lifted his head, looking up at Naruto with light curiosity just faintly evident in his tone and expression.

"Just wait." Naruto leaned forward and held himself up with one hand on Gaara's abdomen while his other pulled the towel from his waist. He reached back with one hand and held Gaara's cock steady while he pushed himself back on to the dripping wet length. "...uha." The boy bit down on his lip lightly as Gaara's member penetrated his entrance, slowly forcing itself into the taut heat of his body.

Gaara's head fell back on to the soft white sheets covering his bed, this felt even better then before, he didn't think it was at all possible. It was so tight, and warm, it was amazing, making the blush across his cheeks grow redder and his pants grow heavier. Pain he could take and occasionally he enjoyed since he didn't usually feel any type of physical sensation on account of the sand, but _this_...it was overwhelming. Gaara lifted his hands from the bed his fingers were currently tearing into and held on to Naruto's legs, lifting up and down onto his throbbing erection. Taking the time to farther impassion himself by watching that lightly tanned rear swallow every inch of his cock.

With one half eye open Naruto gently as he ran his still slightly damp hands over Gaara's stomach and caress the skin with feather soft touches, knowing it only made him even more squeamish. "Gaara..." Naruto clasped on to Gaara's waist and pulled him upward. Gaara got the message, he immediately wrapped his arms around Naruto's back and pulled the boy down on to his chest in a tight embrace while he thrust frantically into the smaller frame.

Naruto held Gaara tightly, pressing his face into the chest before him with an increasingly intensifying hold. "Gaara." Naruto nearly bit down on to the pale flesh, not that Gaara would have at all minded, as his body clinched around Gaara's length and a spurt of cum on to the defined expanses of Gaara's torso.

"..." The sudden tightening of Naruto's muscles around his cock was what did it, the pressure built substantially until one final buck of his hips finally drove him over the edge and the boy above him was filled to the overflow with thick white cum...

Naruto lifted his head enough to look over Gaara's face, still with traces of the blush from before, "So, convinced?"

Gaara had nearly forgotten what Naruto was talking about, but who could remember anything during something like that. "Very."

Naruto nodded lightly as he pushed himself up just enough to reach the discarded towel that had landed on the edge of the bed. He used it to pad himself, and Gaara, dry before tossing it aside again and laying back down on Gaara chest. He could still feel Gaara's heart pounding in his chest, his still heavy breathes...

Gaara took the time to pull his pants up while Naruto had been drying himself, now only half naked he was trying to get his body under control. It just made him wonder how did Naruto do this to him? How could he cause such a reaction every time? Gaara glanced down at Naruto who had a questioning look in his eyes "What is it?"

Naruto reached up in a playful manner, pulling the headphones off of Gaara's neck and settled them over his ears, then he plugged them back into CD player that had been amazingly close to them this whole time. "Pick a favorite song yet?"

"No." Gaara answered in his nonchalant tone, his arm coming to rest behind his head. He liked watching Naruto, even when doing simple things he always seemed so... Naruto-like. Even when he was doing this, something as simple as listening to music he showed so much emotion...Gaara closed his eyes and yawned, he still wasn't sure how this happened, but he always found himself drifting into a blissful sleep with the boy. Sometimes it was just best not to ask questions, just to let it happen...

"I like this one." Naruto drew in his knees and curled up into near ball like form while within Gaara's loose embrace...really loose. "Gaara?" Naruto glanced toward Gaara's face, looking over the peaceful features of a sleeping insomniac. '...I like how he looks when he's sleeping.' Naruto lent upward and kissed Gaara on the cheek was a light smile across his lips. 'He is so cute...' He pressed the muffled headphones clear against his ears though halfway through lowering his hands he found that previous position oddly comfortable.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

He couldn't believe that this had worked, that demon, that Sharingan demon had placed some type of seal on his use of Jutsu. Itachi could still use his Chakra, but every time he preformed a hand seal or a manual Jutsu nothing happened.

He'd laid Kisame down loosely on the couch with obvious haste, probably more like threw him down in a manner that was most likely painful. Though he was pretty sure that Kisame didn't know or care about anything that was happening to him at the moment. He just laid completely lifeless with his eyes wide and his mouth open, dazed and out of it. "Kisame...what the hell did that thing do to you."

Itachi had went through every book he had, trying to find something that would at least mention a Jutsu seal. Chakra seal maybe, but not a Jutsu seal... Itachi tossed the book over his shoulder with evident disregard, this wasn't getting him anywhere! "Damnit!" He sat roughly down next to Kisame, holding him by the shoulders and pulling the man's head down into his lap. "I have to...break through this Jutsu."

Itachi's eyes flared with the glowing red of level 3 Sharingan that pierced into Kisame's dark orbs, peered into his mind. He immediately saw a white flash that hurt his vision, an almost crippling headache tore into his head, making him draw back and the blood line deactivate. "!" Itachi nearly fell as he lent forward and tried to catch his breath, 'W-What was that...' Itachi clinched his pounding forehead, the second he pressed his hand to his skin he felt a sticky fluid coating his palm. He was bleeding, just taking a peek at what was happening inside of Kisame's mind made him actually _bleed_...

What ever that Sharingan demon had did to his friend, it was made to keep him specifically out. 'What did it do to you?' If Kisame was trapped in place constantly feeling what ever he'd just felt, then he had to bring him out of it as quickly as possible. And if his Sharingan wasn't going to do it he needed to unseal his Jutsus... How the hell was he supposed to do that! Itachi growled in anger and frustration. "That demon."

"Ahhhhhhh!" Kisame started flailing wildly, striking Itachi more then a few times before he knocked the raven haired boy to the ground. Kisame clinched his forehead and quieted again, though his body was shaking and he looked as if he was trying to hold something back.

"Kisame." Itachi pushed him down before he could start flailing again, it was apparent he couldn't do anything for Kisame around here. The man was apparently suffering, and if this kept up there wouldn't be anything left of Kisame to bring back. 20 minutes had been wasted already, he couldn't waste more, so in the interest of doing this as quickly as possible he knew there was only one place he could go.

! - ! - !

Very few people could actually be this comfortable in a position like this. Well the way Konohamaru's body was positioned wasn't particularly remarkable but the fact that he'd been sitting on the Forth floor and the roof of SDI for a half hour in the rain was the important thing. He seemed to be the only person who could fall asleep in the rain, even though he was starting to get cold and he hadn't initially meant to fall asleep, it just happened.

'...Sa...Sasuke?' He wasn't dreaming about anything, though he seemed to be overly sensitive to Sharingan. That small link he and Sasuke had formed through the Uchiha blood line grew substantially over the past year, it was evident every time either one of them fell asleep. Sasuke could tell when Konohamaru was sleeping even to the degree where he could see what he was thinking, though Konohamaru couldn't really do anything with the link unless both of them were sleeping or Sasuke was using Sharingan. 'Sasuke?...Wait...it doesn't feel like you...it feels...if feels like...'

Konohamaru was awakened by the strange feeling, the one that felt like Sasuke only darker, if that was at all possible. Upon his return to awareness he found himself staring up at Itachi, the darker then Sasuke feeling, looking down at him through the dark surrounds with glowing red eyes and Kisame on his shoulder. Most people would have been threatened by this thought, he wasn't in the slightest. Konohamaru lifted the back of his hand to his eyes and wiped away the sleep and stray water "Itachi?" He looked up, mildly confused though not entirely sure that he wasn't dreaming. "What...what are you doing here? And what's with Kisame?"

"That demon did this to him." Itachi sounded aggravated, impatient, he would have to be to come here like this.

"You mean, the one with all those eyes like yours?" Konohamaru climbed off the tiled surface, water streaming out of his clothing. "What happened!"

"That doesn't matter right now." Itachi's voice was forceful, he didn't have time to explain everything to Konohamaru. "I need to use your library, do you have anything on breaking Seals?"

"I don't know." Konohamaru started to become worried, was this the reason he was carrying Kisame like this? Did he have some type of seal on him? "But Neji knows, wait here, I'll go ask."

"Hurry up."

! - ! - !

Sasuke shook the water from his hair in an unusually messy manner, not that he really care since the floors where wood. He lowered his hands to the rim of his blue shirt, being the only person that hadn't changed his regular attire for black and white, and just as he was about to remove the wet clothing he paused. '...' With slow, inconspicuous movements he lower his hands to his waist and into the small pouch on his side, then with swift movements he drew a Kunai and turned around.

He found himself face to face...well not quite face to face but standing in front of a mutated version of his father, covered in large red eyes. "Uchiha."

"You!" Sasuke flipped the blade around in his hand so it was pointing downward as he took a step forward and jumped to eye level with the demon, driving a kick at the eye centered in it's torso. Then he swiped the Kunai across it's neck, the Sharingan demon stepped back out of the way then grabbed him by the face with one hand. "!" Sasuke struggled against the painful grip, trying to pry himself free by pulling at it's arm with no success. So finally he held one hand behind his back while he tried to stab the demon in the arm with the Kunai, he couldn't seem to connect.

"Ice blade." Ice grew from the hand behind his back, at first jagged and uneven but the frozen water continued to pile on to it self and take shape. With in a few seconds it had grown into a smooth, edged short sword which he jabbed at the demon's torso, he could feel the resistance as it plunged into the human flesh, forcing his captor to let go...The hand was no longer obstructing his vision, though part of him wished that it was. He found his office filled with copies of the demon all holding vein images of his mutated father, 30 or so surrounding him. 'Damnit.'

Sasuke grunted and threw the ice sword at the one in front of him, which didn't disappear as he thought it would...the next thing he knew he was being grabbed by the arms and legs, being pushed down to the ground and held. These weren't copies, this was Sharingan! And as much as Sasuke could figure it had been the eye in that demon's palm that did it, he just couldn't believe he hadn't realized it until now...

The demon looked down at Sasuke, laying with dull eyes and squirming lightly on the ground. It would have killed Sasuke off now,-- but instead it looked up...

! - ! - !

Konohamaru landed on a window sill one story down from the roof, with his scarf blowing wildly in the wind behind him he opened the window and climbed in on the second floor balcony of the library. He immediately ran to the railing surrounding the balcony and jumped down to the floor below him, nearly landing on Neji in the process.

"Konohamaru?" Neji looked down on the boy sternly, "What's with all of this water? And watch where your going."

"Sorry Neji but there's no time for that. Do you have anything on Seals?" Konohamaru asked.

Neji glanced around over Konohamaru's head at the books surrounding them "Hmm...Second level on the left side. Why, what for?"

Konohamaru thought quickly, he couldn't say that Itachi was on the roof and he wanted the information, so what could he say? "A demon."

"Is it for a mission?"

"No!" Konohamaru shook his head, smiling nervously before turning around and jumping back on to the second level of the library, he almost yelled when he ran into Itachi. But Itachi covered his mouth before he could make a sound. "..." Konohamaru pushed his hand away "You scared me."

"Where are the books?" Itachi looked around, trying to find a relatively safe place to put Kisame. Having someone stumble on him wouldn't be pleasant, Itachi didn't look forward to fighting SDI, even as skilled as he was it would have been considerably harder to nearly impossible to fight them with out the use of Jutsu.

"Over there." Konohamaru pointed just behind him in the section of book cases Neji had indicated.

Itachi pulled Kisame off of his shoulder and laid him down next to Konohamaru. He gave the boy only a few words before he headed off toward the books. "Take care of him, make sure you keep him out of sight."

"What!" Konohamaru looked down at Kisame, the man looked...to be honest half dead. Konohamaru was worried but still-- "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Just keep him out of sight." Itachi was a little more forceful this time. "I don't have time for this."

"Damnit." Konohamaru placed his hands together and concentrated, just as this had been done thousands of times before Konohamaru's bright golden Chakra started to radiate outside his body. And with 1000s of hours of honing practice Konohamaru ordained the energy into his arms, legs and into his small torso. "Fine, just be careful!" With extra strength coursing through him he lifted the man 3 times his size above his head, though it was awkward since this was the only way he could move Kisame considering the fact that he was so short and couldn't even fit his arms all the way around him. 'Sorry boss.'

Konohamaru headed for the stairs this time, hoping to make it to the basement before anyone saw him, or even worse before Sasuke saw him. He had no idea that Sasuke was in the same state Kisame was. 'Oh god, please Kisame, don't move. Itachi will kill me if I drop you down the stairs!'

Taking a few glances back just to make sure that Konohamaru was alright, then he looked through the books. Glancing over the tittles quickly just to see if something caught his eye...

"Damnit." Itachi drove a swift kick back, striking the Sharingan demon in the forehead and knocking it back a few steps. With the small lead he was able to unsheathe the thin bladed sword on his back and thrust it toward the largest eye resting in the center demon's chest. He hadn't been fast enough though, each eye blinked at once which was linked to an attack that followed. A invisible force pushed Itachi away, it was like in invisible feedback... The next thing he knew he was standing at the edge of a black void, and it was pulling him in.

Itachi drove his sword behind him and held on 'I didn't even notice myself looking...' This thing was too much for him, it seemed to be able to use Sharingan with out end while Itachi couldn't, and with out jutsu he didn't stand a chance..."Sight!" With another flare of his red eyes Itachi's surroundings faded away in black swirls, by the time it was over he was standing in the library again, face to face with the eye on the demon's chest. 'It hasn't attacked me yet, it just keeps using Sharingan...' It hadn't taken Itachi long to figure out his enemy's style of attack, if he couldn't use Jutsu then he'd just beat it physically.

Itachi moved with his usual speed, appearing behind the demon, lifting his sword above his head and slashing downward across it's back. It fell forward on to it's stomach and Itachi closed his eyes while he plunged the sword down into the Sharingan demon's back, and just as he had expected it lifted it's left hand toward Itachi with the eye embedded in it's palm so wide that it was shaking. Though he wasn't sure how it happened, Itachi couldn't feel the demon beneath his sword anymore, he didn't open his eyes to check. He just lifted his sword and swung where his senses told him.

And it connected with something.

Unable to sense a demonic presence anymore Itachi deemed it was safe enough and opened his eyes. 'It ran.' Itachi was standing in front of Neji, and his sword had struck the boy's lifted fist. The only reason Itachi hadn't cut through Neji's hand was the glowing with a white Chakra blocking the edge of his sword.

"What are you doing here?" Neji was not at all excited about the prospect of fighting Itachi and visibly hesitant.

"Hey wait, Itachi--" An empty handed, still soaked Konohamaru ran up the stairs just a few feet behind Itachi and Neji, so rushed that he tripped on the last step and crashed head first into the ground. That's when he saw the two, both of which were looking back at him, and his mind started to race... 'Oh crap...' He didn't have time to worry about that, the reason he came back was more important. "Stop it! There's no time for that!"

"Konohamaru?" Neji's first thought was that the reason Itachi had returned was to recapture Konohamaru, that thought started to lose accountability when he realized that Konohamaru had addressed Itachi specifically. "What's going on?" Neji lowered his hand from the sword and stepped away, still tensely on guard. Itachi only glanced back at Konohamaru with a look in his eyes that inquired what he'd come back for and at the same time told him it better had been a good reason for leaving Kisame...where ever he'd left him.

"I saw it, that demon. It went after Sasuke, it did something to him, but when I tried to fight it off it ran."

"So what?"

"It's coming right--"

Itachi stepped to the side just as the same demon dived down from someplace above, narrowly missing it's target Itachi and falling right into Konohamaru. It's hand slammed into Konohamaru's face, knocking him backwards through the wooden railing and tumbling down. He would have fell down a level if not for Neji who had jumped in between him and the demon right after the impact... "Konohamaru!" Neji slid to a stop from discharging momentum, looking down on Konohamaru who didn't seem to be moving. In fact he didn't even look conscious with the dazed look in his eyes and the slightly twitching mouth.

"Konohamaru, Konohamaru!...Damnit." Neji recognized the demon from Sasuke's descriptions, he could easily tell what happened to Konohamaru. "It used Sharingan on him." And since Sasuke hadn't come after the demon after Konohamaru said that it attacked him, it could only mean something was wrong.

Itachi growled in frustration, first Kisame and now Konohamaru, and he was still no closer to unsealing his jutsu. With anger rolling off of him Itachi appeared in front of Neji with an untraceable speed, His tone rough and demanding when he spoke "What do you know about Jutsu seals?"

"Why are you here!" Neji shot back, his previous question still unanswered. Though he did seem to notice that this demon was after Uchiha family members, it was easy to see that. But it didn't make sense, why was Itachi here, and Jutsu seal?

Itachi sent a swift elbow back at the approaching Sharingan demon, then turned and punched it directly in the face with enough strength to throw it back into the wall. "I don't have time for this." Itachi didn't think Neji would help him so easily, so he had to give him a little incentive. "I'm the only person that can release the Sharingan on Konohamaru, and I can't do that like I am. So just tell me."

He was right, that was the unfortunate part. "There is no Jutsu seal, the only way to seal a jutsu is to seal the hands or the Chakra."

"That can't be right, that demon sealed my Jutsu, I can't use them at all."

"Then figure it out." Neji wasn't focused on Itachi, he was too busy trying to bring Konohamaru out of what ever trance he was in.

...'Hmm...' Itachi watched as the father replication pulled itself off of the impact crater, then it disappeared in a flash of red, the third time it had run from him today, this was all becoming confusing. Before he even attempted to figure anything else out he had to get this seal thing cleared up. 'If there is no Jutsu seal...' Itachi should have thought about this more... 'Then it could only be...' Sharingan hypnosis. There couldn't really be a seal on his Jutsu, he'd just been hypnotized into thinking so. He'd been trying all this time to use his Sharingan on Kisame when he should have tried it on himself. "Damnit, it tricked me."

! - ! - ! - !

'Sasuke...' Sasuke...'

'Kono...Konohamaru?' Sasuke looked around his office, he knew that he was still trapped in the demon's illusion, fighting off copies of his father that had no end. All of it had taken it's toll quickly, he was starting to ware down. 'Konohamaru! Where are you?"

'I-I don't know... that demon...it really hurts.'

'Konohamaru! What happened?'

'That demon, it did...something.'

'Konohamaru!'

! - ! - !

Sasuke sprang upright with a startled gasp, looking around frantically. "Konohamaru!"... He was...he'd broken out of the Demon's Jutsu, and his eyes were glowing so much it was actually painful. He didn't particularly care about what that meant, he had to find Konohamaru!

Sasuke scrambled on to his feet and ran for the door, he was moving so fast that he nearly fell when he tried to stop when the door suddenly flew open just as he reached for it. It ended up slamming into his face and knocking him flat on to his back as the Sharingan Demon made it's emergence. One demon that couldn't seem to make up it's mind and stay in one place.

A very startled Sasuke rolled backwards and ran at the demon since he knew he couldn't wait. He thrust his hand forward, stopping just inches from touching his enemy. "Ice wall." Upon his command a wall of Ice formed between him and the demon, cold enough to dissipate a thick smoke like mist from it's surface. He closed the gap between his hand and the wall with one small movement, causing thick spikes to protrude out of the barrier toward his enemy. '...I think...that did it.'

Nope, not yet

Sasuke jumped up lightly and kicked off the wall, flipping over the demon who had appeared behind him and then thrust his foot into the back of it's head. "I don't have time for this!" Sasuke landed behind the Sharingan demon and bolted past it toward the door.

! - ! - !

'It runs every time another person shows up...'Itachi started to realize some things about this demon, like how it's only means of attack was by the Sharingan, not to say that wasn't a powerful means of attack. And how it ran away when someone else made an appearance, like with Kisame.

"Alright, I told you, now release this Jutsu from Konohamaru!" Neji said firmly, holding the boy in his arms. "Now. Before that demon comes back."

Itachi rolled his eyes as he knelt down next to Neji and slipped his hands under Konohamaru's arms, taking the boy away from Neji. Then he looked directly into his glassy, wonton eyes with his own glowing red ones..."Ahhhhhhaaa!" Konohamaru's eyes widened and his body started squirming and failing, he ended up punching and kicking Itachi several times before he realized where he was. "Oh, sorry Itachi...What happened? Where was I?"

Itachi didn't answer, instead he abruptly dropped Konohamaru and lifted his hand just in time to catch Sasuke's leg. "Leave him alone!" Sasuke called angrily as he was tossed aside by his older brother, he caught himself and landed on his feet.

'Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!' Konohamaru rubbed his head and his lower back, one hurt by the small fall and the other only farther aggravated by it. 'Not now, not now!' "Sasuke, hey wait!"

Sasuke obviously wasn't listening because he charged at Itachi who easily evaded and blocked anything he threw at him, Itachi wasn't focused on him. The elder Uchiha easily grabbed him by the neck, pulling them face to face "I don't have time to deal with you." He said in low tones, then threw Sasuke into one of the book cases surrounding them.

"Stop!" Konohamaru ran over to Sasuke and abruptly jumped on his chest and tried to hold him down. "Wait! You can't do this, not now--"

"Konohamaru, move." Sasuke gave him a warning, a very callous warning at that.

Somewhere in-between what was happening now and what happened next Itachi had notice Neji was gone, which was his first hit that something was about to go wrong...

Konohamaru didn't even have a chance to respond, the next thing he knew he was being picked up his hair by two hands and brought face to face with a man that looked like an older version of Itachi and Sasuke. The Sharingan demon. "Aaaa...Let me go!" Konohamaru tried to attack it only to find that he couldn't even reach it, and that his head was hurting really, really bad. With a cry of pain Konohamaru reached behind his back for his metal kunais but was stopped with a strong, oppressive and completely unseen force blasted into his chest like a hard punch. He was blown out of demon's hands and through the same window he'd come down from the roof in, leaving chunks of his hair behind.

"Uchiha."

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke dived out of the broken frame and caught Konohamaru before the boy hit the ground, immediately leaping back into the library with him in his arms...and once again the boy was staring up with wanton eyes and a slightly open mouth, he'd been hit with a Sharingan based attack. 'No...' "Konohamaru!"

Itachi, as fast as he was, usually could at lest put a Jutsu in motion with out anyone being remotely aware of his action, allowing him to catch them off guard. But this time he was caught off guard himself, the Sharingan demon was right in front of him with it's left palm extended outward. It was making a strange sound, a gushing sound, like fluid being expelled right before the level 3 Sharingan eye shot from it's hand and on to Itachi's chest. "Uhhrrrga!" Before he could even reach for it the long red optical cord began burrowing into his chest opposite the heart. He fell to his knees, clinching the spot where it had gone... That's when his vision started to blur.

Sasuke jumped on the demon from behind with a Kunai in hand, driving it downward into it's back just short of the neck, his intended target. The Demon stumbled forward as it thrust it's elbow back into Sasuke's stomach then reach upward with it's left hand, pulling him over it's shoulder and slamming him down to the ground before pressing his right against his chest opposite his heart and expelling the Sharingan eye into him just like it had done to Itachi...

"Ahhhhaaa!" Sasuke scratched and pounded at his chest in an attempt to remove it, what scared him was the fact that the pain was dulling and he could feel the hole it created when it dug into his body closing off. His mind didn't have time to wonder about that, it was going other places, literally, he was starting to see things. "No...No!" Sasuke clinched his head and rolled away from the demon, landing on the fallen Konohamaru. "Stop it! Stop it!"

Itachi, incapacitated from this strange force attempting to gain control of his head, could only watch as his younger brother struggled around like a fish out of water while he couldn't even move. Infact he was genuinely impressed at how Sasuke was resisting it while Itachi was fighting a losing battle. 'How...is he...? Konohamaru.' Itachi could see his brother's motivation, how much more he was looking at the boy he'd run into instead of the closing wound, his real problem. And how much his eyes were glowing were not normal, not for the Uchiha blood line at any level. 'He's...'

Sasuke pulled his hands away from his head as he scrambled along the ground and dived at the demon bearing the image of his father, tackling it to the ground and punching it repeatedly in a blind furry. He wasn't worried about himself, he wanted, he needed to help Konohamaru. He could hear things, through that link they had developed, he could hear Konohamaru and the only thing he knew was that what ever he was going through was worse then the first time. "Stop it, Stop it, Stop it!"

Itachi finally just closed his eyes since his vision was so blurred that he couldn't tell if they were open or not anyway, unable to fight against the Sharingan working in opposition to him any longer...and just as he was about to enter the control of the Jutsu, it stopped. Itachi, now able to move again, sat up and opened his eyes. His hand immediately clinched the spot across from his heart, pulling away the layers of clothing to exam it while Sasuke relentlessly and mindlessly pounded the demon. 'How did he do it when I couldn't even get close?'

Itachi noticed that the area where the eye had gone into his body, there wasn't even a trace of what had just happened, he couldn't even feel it. He just knew that it was still there, and he had no way to find it or get it out since it seemed to be moving around. But Sasuke, he only seemed to have been briefly effected by it, he'd succeeded where Itachi had failed...

With a flash of red chakra the demon disappeared and Sasuke fell to his knees without anything under him. "Sa-Sasuke!" Konohamaru shouted as he jumped to his feet though nearly fell out of the window with disorientedness.

That's when it became apparent to Itachi that he didn't have the motivation or the sheer desire to beat that demon, at lest not alone. Especially with this...thing inside of him that could inflict Sharingan at the demon's will, or at lest that's what had just happened now. So the only way could get rid of this demon that wanted the both of them dead was to use Sasuke to do it...no, Sasuke wasn't strong enough to do it by himself, they both would have to...

Sasuke looked in the direction Itachi had been in, only to find the man gone...


	22. Chapter 22: Tracking mission

Chapter 22: Tracking mission

It was raining.

It was hard to measure how important that was for someone who wasn't in Kiba's situation. It was raining, and the rain was his worst enemy. The skies were pitch black with a thick blanked of dark clouds heavy with moisture, the clouds blocked all light from above, it erased the stars and bared the moonlight. That combined with the cover of the forest's trees made visibility and light nonexistent, it was pitch black, making sight useless. And the constant sound of the heavy drops of water pounding into the soaked ground, crashing into the tree's leaves, falling against the branches and trunks made it hard for Kiba to hear his own thoughts let alone something else around him.

He was searching for someone, a small child had been forcefully adducted by a demon, the girl's mother came to them quickly, so Kiba was able to get a few descriptions and take note of the girl's scent before he set off. But he encountered _this_, heavy winds, zero visibility, and rain. He was working against a horribly constrictant clock, this rain was washing away the girl's scent, his trail, and he had to find the girl before it was completely gone.

"Damn rain." Kiba lept through the trees in an uncharacteristically sloppiness, propelling himself forward nearly blind save for his senses as a ninja. His hood was down since it aggravated his ears, his black clothes were heavy with water and clung to him with every movement, Akamaru was tucked in his zipped up jacket. He moved forward, chasing a quickly fleeing scent drawing him in this direction.

Lighting flashed not too far ahead, illuminating the blanket of black clouds covering the sky with a quick, fleeting tent of light blue, followed by the distant roll of thunder. Promising that this storm would get even worse then it already was. This forest he searched through was large, this one stayed standing even during the Chakra storm nearly 2 years ago, though the trees were much fewer in number then they used to be because of it. Only the considerably old trees had remained standing, leaving behind the ones with thick trunks and tall enough to be small towers.

"Akamaru? You picking up anything?" Kiba gained a negative bark in return.

Akamaru wasn't picking up any thing anymore, and neither was he.

Kiba stopped, allowing himself to fall in between the trees and drop into a small clearing below, it looked as if several trees used to resided in this spot. "Shit!" He growled in anger. This was it, the rain had finally washed away the sent of the girl he'd been tracking, the trail ended here.

Akamaru barked again, making Kiba pause to look around. ' ?' What was that... The boy tilted his head back inhaled the wet air in deep breaths, "Hey... your right. What is that smell..."

Kiba moved slowly across the muddy ground, his nose twitched at the faint yet softly intensifying smell. The air was filled with the scent of moisture and wet foliage and plant life as it always was in the forest when it rained, but this scent he picked out was nothing like that. Which was why it was so odd when Kiba's nose led him to tree. 'Huh" He leaned forward and pressed his nose close to the large trunk... Though it didn't look like it, or feel like it from the outside, but this tree was dead. '!' Kiba drew his arm back and swiped at the large plant with his claws, he easily ripped through the rotting wood inside.

Lighting flashed in the sky, close this time, flooding the dark forest with a split second burst of light allowing Kiba to see just what was really inside of that hollowed out tree. A demon, a someone what short creature with white skin and a horn on it's head, it's upper body looked human. But it's lower body wasn't, it's legs were two hooves and everything below the waist with covered in brown fur, a horse's tail whipped behind it from it's lower back. This was a fawn demon.

The demon flipped backwards and landed on it's feet, letting out a cry that sounded similar to screech and a baby's wine.

"What the hell..." Kiba took a blind, reluctant step backwards, returning to the clearing. His ears perked, listening attentively and his nose flared, using his heightened sense of smell and hearing would be the only way to track this thing. He heard a soft splash in the muddy ground to the left of him and then the sound of something pushing hard through the air, the scent of the fawn was so close... Kiba reached a hand out and caught the demon by the fist, then pulled it over his shoulder and slammed it to the ground. He swiped at it with his claws but it rolled out of the way before he could hit.

The fawn backed away slowly, screaming loudly with that odd cry. It was so simple for Kiba to follow with out sight and he ran after it with out hesitation, growling in a low dangerous voice as he drew his claws back and slashed blindly at the creature. It jumped back to evade but Kiba still managed to connect, his claws swiped across the demon's chest, going deep enough with a single strike to fling a considerable amount of flesh and blood upon his claw's exit.

Lighting flashed in the sky and thunder rolled across the forest directly overhead, so loud that it drowned out every other sound and caused a considerable amount of pain to Kiba's sensitive ears. The half werewolf flinched and his ears pressed down hard against his head, leaving a loud ringing behind. It was a few second before he heard Akamaru barking at him, warning him. But what was he so agitated about? "Akamaru? What's-"

And then he realized it, that small scent of the single fawn he was fighting was now overpowered by the scent of many of the fawn. It wasn't screaming, it had been calling them. 'Crap!' He heard a repetition of loud crashes over the pounding of the rain as the fawns burst fort from the trunks of surrounding trees, which unfortunately caused the rest of the towering plants to fall to the ground with nothing to stand on. '!'

Kiba's ears twitched again and he dived to the left just as a severed tree from behind him crashed to the ground, causing the earth to shake noticeably. With his sense of hearing and instincts fully focused he rolled forward and sprang to his feet just as another three crashed down dangerously close behind, close enough to splash mud and rain water across his back when he landed. Then he flipped backward on to the previously fallen tree then sprang again into the air as a third one crashed on to the other two downed trees hard enough disburse a soaked burst of wind and wood... And that's when he saw the sight he'd been wishing for.

_Aaahhhaaa! No! Aggaaaa!_

With three contentious streaks, Lighting flooded the forest in with light from above, giving a quick snap shot of the area, and his momentary leap to evade the falling trees allowed him to see everything from above. Behind the shadows of the surrounding trees he saw a child, a very small boy with brown hair and half torn and muddy clothing being dragged screaming along the ground by the leg. He couldn't see what was dragging him though. He could also see directly under him, by now the clearing was filled with fawn demons, he roughly counted about 12 and he was sure there were more his eyes weren't fast enough to see.

'Oh man, I don't have time for this.' Kiba landed skillfully on the ground with a small splash of mud, and with out hesitation he took hold of Akamaru and abruptly tossed the small dog in the air. "Akamaru, follow him!" He barely got the words out before he felt two hooves slam into his chest hard enough to force the air out of his lungs and then another pair at his back that knocked him to the ground.

If there was one thing he could say about these demons was that they kicked hard.

Kiba fell face first into the mud with the knowledge he'd be sporting a bruise there later, he immediately rolled on to his back and thrust both feet into the air, blindly kicking another fawn that came at him in the darkness. He stumbled to his feet and just as soon he was pelted with blows. 'Damnit!' At the moment he was helpless, he couldn't see anything, his hearing was being drowned out by the rain and the excessive amounts of demons so it was nearly imposable to tell one from another, and he was surrounded by the same scent, he couldn't possibly picked out a single fawn's.

Another strong kick slammed into the back of Kiba's head and he blindly tumbled to the ground again. 'No...' He mumbled to himself, he couldn't let himself be held up here. And he was being drastically slowed down. 'I don't have time for this!' There was no way he could be beaten here, he had to move forward...

"Get out of my way!" His words drowned in a fierce, animalistic roar with a flash of red chakra that came faded just as quickly. His claws grew thicker and longer as his fingers dug into the muddy ground, clinching clumps of it into his closing fist. His fangs extended out of his mouth, pushing down his bottom lip even farther. The red lines extending down his face grew bolder with low dangerous growls pushing from deep in his throat with each breath.

Kiba's movements grew quicker, though he could do nothing but slash around wildly. It seemed to work though, he instantly felt his claws make contact with flesh, with one touch he got a general sense of the body he was fighting and immediately went for the neck, riping the fawn's throat out with a quick slash. It was working simply because he was suddenly fast enough to pull it off. His hearing seemed to heighten even farther, he could suddenly pick up and differentiate what was were, it was like a strong sense of dept was added...

"Gatsuuga!" Kiba dived forward and his body went into a furious spin, moving so fast he was nothing but a black blur in the darkness. His body moved on scent, plowing down and ripping apart each and every one of the demons before any of them knew what hit them. Kiba landed on his feet slid to a sudden stop, if there were any left they were either hiding or to injured to fight otherwise.

The rain grew harder, pounding louder and louder into his surroundings like thousands of pieces of metal, almost unbearable on his new even more heightened sense of hearing. He stood there, looking idly around the darkness, allowing the rain wash away the blood and and dirt covering him. "Akamaru!" Kiba called out, waiting hopefully for a response so that he could find their way. "Akamaru!"

_Arf_!

'There!" Kiba heard the small voice calling out to the left of him and he immediately shifted his path toward Akamaru's voice. He bolted across the wet ground, crossing the small clearing and heading deeper into the darkness of the forest.

_Arf! Arf!_

It wasn't long before he found the small doing perched in a tree, waiting for him. "Good job boy." Kiba jumped onto the tree branch, kneeling down and allowing Akamaru to climb into his usual spot in his jacket again. "Which way?"

Akamaru barked, indicating a direction only Kiba could understand. The boy nodded obediently and lept forward, flinching slightly as a streak of lighting directly over head painted the darkness of the forest in a flash of blue and allowed Kiba to see where he was going and more importantly his objective Akamaru had been tailing. It was a fawn demon, carrying the small boy on it's shoulder. 'Hey... wait...that's not the girl...who's that?'

Kiba sprang off of branch and lept forward, lighting flashed and Kiba could see he'd just leaped over a sharp downhill slope. This whole forest seemed to be one downhill slope...

Kiba landed in the tree branch at the foot of the 20 foot slope, right in front of another, larger clearing. This time the clearing looked as if it wasn't done by nature, the removal of the trees would be crude and rough, but it wasn't. There were stumps left behind from where trees had been cut off, deep holes in the ground were the tress appeared to have been ripped out cleanly by a sharp pull upward. "What the hell..." Who would do this...who would be powerful enough to clear out an area in this manner, and why? It was clearly just done recently, maybe...

Kiba saw the fawn run out of the forest below him, not losing a step in the murky ground of the clearing, the ground didn't seem to be absorbing the water fast enough so a layer of thin mud covered it like a sheet. It carried the boy on it's shoulders, crying out loudly with that strange cry. "Damnit, he's calling for help!" Kiba dived out of the tree, another flash of lighting streaming across the sky behind him followed by the powerful crash thunder sounding just as the boy landed. He nearly fell. It was loud enough to force him to stop and cringe with a though scattering pain pulsed in his ears. "Ahha..."

The ground began to quake with heavy foot steps, quick footsteps from the part of the forest across the large opening. The crude and harsh sound of buckling and cracking wood erupted as trees were broken and fell to the ground with loud crashes and equally loud splashes. It was almost fearful hearing such a frightful sound and surrounded in complete, darkness.

Lighting was flashing almost contentiously, he wasn't shore of how long this period of repeatedly discharging energy would last, but it allowed him to see 2 large, shadowy forms forcing their way out of the forest. They stood at lest 15 feet tall, tough red skin bulking with muscles over every part of their bodies and nothing more then a loincloth covering them, they were ogre demons. They approached the area, speaking in a series of mumbles and grunts in some unknown demon language.

The fawn demon ran right past them and as soon as the two demons heard it's cries they seemed to understand what it had been saying and ran towards Kiba before even seeing him. '!' "What is going on around here?" Kiba took a few reluctant steps back as he saw and heard the two large demons running at him in the static source of flashing light that made things seem like a wet slid show more then anything. At the very worst time, the lighting receded leaving everything in the familiar blanket of wet darkness. Even with out sight Kiba could hear them easily, and that's all he he needed. 'I guess I have no choice but to get past them!"

Kiba heard the foot steps cease and small sound of heavy limps parting through the air at a high speed. Lighting flashed and he saw the first ogre directly in front of him with it's fist driven into the ground dangerously close, apparently it couldn't see in the dark and was as blind as he was. "OniGijyu shinto!" Kiba clinched his hands into tight fist, forcing a blood red chakra out of his knuckles that formed into long claws extending at lest 3 feet outward. Kiba quickly dived to the left to avoid the second ogre that reached out for him.

Those ogre didn't let up, they were slow, but they were unrelentingly persistent. Kiba rolled on to his feet and took a few quick steps back, then charged swiftly forward toward the first demon under the cover of darkness. Tracking by hearing alone he sprang into the air drawing his left arm back and driving it into the ogre's chest. The ogre quickly lifted it's hand and blocked the blow, the red onigijuy claws drove completely through it's palm and came out the other side in a stream of blood. With a odd cry off pain the demon flung him away, throwing his body into the air by the claws, before Kiba could even try to recover, the second ogre demon came from behind and drove it's fist into Kiba's back with a powerful punch.

"Uff!" He was hammered into the ground, he nearly drowned in the layer of water thin mud covering it. He'd admit, these demons worked well together.

The ogre lifted it's fist and let out a surprised series of incomprehensible grunts when he found the boy he'd just crushed a second before was gone. "?"

_Rooooaaaarr_! Kiba roared thunderously as he broke through the soft ground behind the second ogre, leaping into the air and driving his claws into the broad expanses of it's back. Then he swiped the other claw across the wet flesh, deciding not to press his luck, Kiba kicked off the second demon's back and moved back a safe distance. He almost made it too, but the much angrier first ogre snatched him out of the air with it's uninjured hand.

The first ogre wailed aggressively as it tossed Kiba's body as far as it could, lunching Kiba to the edge of the clearing where he collided painfully with the base of a tree. He cried out in pain as his body broke through it and crashed half way into the trunk of an even larger tree, hearing the first fall to the ground in front of him. "Ughaaa..." He cringed and bit down on his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, his back was ripped open with large gashes from the objects piercing deeply into his flesh. It stung horribly when the mud and dirt covering his body finally made it's way into his wounds. "A-Akamaru.."

He could only watch the light of many flames became visible in the forest on the other side of the clearing, more heavy footsteps following behind from something large. They came in large numbers through the ruined path caused by the red ogres that came the first time, fawn demons bearing torches to light their path. They were followed by two more ogres but with completely black skin, and based on appearance, stronger the the red ones.

The disorganized precession stopped in the center of the clearing, the fawns parted out of the way as the two black ogres found the particular spot they seemed to be looking for. Then with a small quake the two demons dropped to their knees and dug their hands into the muddy ground and lifted something close to the surface, a hatch to something. Reveling a steel container of some sort that had been well buried and hidden under ground especially for it's size, as soon as the cover opened Kiba could hear an abundance of loud, pained screams and even see inside of it from where he was. The box structure was about 10 feet long and 15 feet wide, roughly 10 deep, and contained abducted children. They were small, none of them could be over the age of 5 but they were helplessly trapped and screaming so loudly that Kiba winced at the depressing sound. Hearing that was worse then the pain he was in right now... The fawn carelessly tossed the brown haired boy into what was nothing more then a fully boxed cage and the ogres closed the hatch, shutting out all of the screams into the heavy rain and isolating the children into darkness.

'Oh my god...' He couldn't believe what he'd just seen. "No!" Kiba screamed, wincing at the pain in his back as he forced himself on to his feet. This was much worse then he expected when he first came on this mission, he wasn't just looking for one missing kid, he was looking for over 20. If he failed, just one life wouldn't be on his hands... "No!"

The black ogres paid no attention to him, the demons only moved over to the other side of the container and began shoving large handfuls of saturated earth out of the way, digging for something. It was a simple manner of a few scoops with such a large size, they dug their hand into the ground again down to about the wrist, and with a word in the demon language each fished around and finally pulled out a thick steel cord. The two ogres worked with an experienced unison, pulling on the large steel cords with their strength until the ground parted like water and the steel container was pulled from it's place in the ground and steadily dragged toward the edge of the forest where they'd first come from, the fawns and the steady light of the fire went with them.

"Akamaru." Kiba took quick, stumbling steps forward, staring at the two red ogres coming directly at him again. "Can you find your way back?" He asked hopefully, Akamaru barked affirmatively in response. "Go back and get some help, it doesn't matter who just get them out here." Kiba cried desperately, Akamaru gave another affirmative bark and quickly climbed out of Kiba's jacket, sensing all of his master's haste as he dashed off uphill.

'Looks like I'm on my own for now...' Kiba looked down at his hands, noticing that onigijyu claws had been dispelled. He didn't have time to redo the jutsu now, Kiba flipped to the side in the darkness, feeling the first ogre's only good hand swipe out at him. Then with quick movements he jumped onto the same ogre's fleeting arm, growling fiercely as he sprinted up the large appendage on all fours and then sprang into the air, driving his foot into the first ogre's face with a powerful kick, pushing all of his strength behind it. Hard enough to knock the ogre to the ground.

"OniGijuy Shinto!" Blood red claws reformed on his knuckles, lighting flooding the surroundings with light as he plummeted to the ground after the falling ogre. With out missing a second subsequent to the ogre's landing on the ground Kiba drove his claws into it's head, killing it before it even realized it. '!' Kiba's only warning was the twitch of his ears at a sensitive sound his ears were naturally tuned too before the second ogre's cuffed fist slammed into his back.

'!' "Ughaaaaa!" He didn't go very far, thrown on to his stomach a few feet away from the dead first demon, but it aggravated his wounded back to uncomprehending amounts. But that only made Kiba's furry even stronger, this wasn't were he needed to be, he couldn't be held up here! And thing he said at the moment came out simply as a loud roar, licking the blood off of his upper lip as he climbed on to all fours and turned toward the demon. It was dark again, neither of them could see each other, but Kiba could hear it clearly as before.

With a feeling like adrenaline rushing through him he charged forward in darkness, in a flash of lighting he jumped on the air and landed on top of the ogre's fist at it attempted to strike him.

It expected him to attack it's head, blocking it's face with it's arm and ready to retaliate, but instead Kiba used that anticipation against it. He simply lept over it's temperately unaware head, and skillfully planted two explosive tags as he fell over it's shoulder. One on the back of it's head and one in the center of it's back upon his evading accent and then sprang off toward the other side of the clearing in a canine like manner, still on all fours.

He heard the oddly satisfying explosion behind him followed by the crash of dead weight against the wet ground.

! - ! - !

Iruka sighed, looking around helplessly at the SDI lobby filled with people desperately seeking help to reclaim their lost children. It wasn't sure what was going on but all of these people came in around the same time frame, obviously connected in descriptions of accounts. It was the same, a demon came and simply took their child, or children.

They were all parents, mothers and fathers, some simply a single mother or a single father standing idly alone in the crowed. Some had children with them, holing them close as if they were their last hope for salvation, their only thing left, fearing that they would be taken away too. But Iruka felt the worst for those who had no one there with them, he understood them a little better then those parents who stood there together with their spouses, especially the ones who were there with other children. When he saw them he felt as if he was one of them, he just hoped they understood his empathy and because of it he'd do everything possible to help them.

The room was filled with a loud uproar of too many people seeking help, too many desperate people. Iruka finally spoke up, nearly shouting to the small crowed for them to calm down, they seemed to listen to him. "Please, just hold on, I assure you we're doing all we can to find them." He said. "But you'll have to calm down, worrying like this isn't going to do anything." Maybe it was because they knew or felt he understood by how much emotion was in his voice when he spoke, or the look in his eyes that held the same sadness as if he was going through what they were. But they listened to him and tried not to worry.

The atmosphere was so oppressive, all of these people who were so sad and worried and desperate that they might simply snap under the stress. It overwhelming to watch, it was overwhelming for him to be around... Iruka quickly turned and walked with quick steps toward the door, hoping the people would think of it as nothing more then him going to help out in the search for their children, walking of the lobby door and into the familiar main hall. He closed the door behind him and leaning against it weakly with a deep sigh. "Oh man... Kiba please find something..." All of these cases were connected obviously, and so was the one Kiba had been sent on, if Kiba found something then...

He stood there for a moment, contemplating what he would do about this problem...

"Iruka?" Naruto came down the hall with quick steps, nearly running. "Iruka, I was looking all over for you!"

"What? Why?"

"It's Sasuke and Neji." He said. "A demon attacked them up stairs."

! - ! - !

The lighting seemed to thin out in favor of the deafeningly loud clash of thunder that were so painful to Kiba's ears. But he didn't need the light, the ogres had left a clear path lined with smashed and broken trees and a strait trail when they were dragging the steel cage. Following the trail ironically wouldn't be his problem any more...

'...?' Kiba didn't stop, uneasiness prompted him to move faster, but he wondered the nature of this new ominous sinking feeling digging into his stomach. A feeling that told him to run and not to look back, something so undeniably strong screaming to abandon this and go, _right now_. He didn't understand it until he felt a soft quake in the ground, one that wouldn't have been noticed if he wasn't so low to the ground, his ears focused inanely at a distance sound, a soft sound that was nearly indistinguishable against the rainfall. Mainly because it was so similar to it. ' N-no...no!' Kiba immediately increased his pace to a speed that made his balance unstable on the slick ground. He turned to the side and began sliding down the sharp downhill slope he came to, knowing he couldn't afforded to fall right now. 'No!'

In only a few seconds he could hear it clearly, the rubbling from the earth was undeniable, something big and powerful was coming at him and it was coming from behind... . 'Not now... Damn this rain!' The rain was his worst enemy.

It came flowing from up hill a wall of muddy water blowing through the forest with full force, a raging river that swept away the soft top soil as well as everything in it's path. It engulfed every broken and ruined tree along the path, the logs and severed plants tumbled and crashed loudly along the ground, knocking other trees out of the ground and into the mud slide. Even worse, this whole forest moved downhill, which only fueled it's powerful current.

It was dark, but he didn't need to see it, he could hear it. With no choice Kiba quickly shifted off of the path left behind the ogres and lept on to the base of a tree, frantically climbed to the canopy's branches. The mud slide struck the tree he was in, washing away the ground beneath it and tearing out it's roots with it's pull, causing it to tumble into the raging river. "!" Kiba sprang out of the rapidly descending tree, leaping into another one nearby.

He had to get to that steel container!

Lighting flashed, giving him a small glimpse of his world. With the path illuminated he dived to the right into another tree, and nearly fell out of it when the mud slide's current slammed into it and caused it to shake violently. Lighting flashed again and thunder rolled though not nearly as loud as the water, Kiba looked back in the frame of light and panicked, '!' Kiba quickly dived to his right as a tumbling log smashed through the tree he'd been holding on too, sending himself falling directly into the mud slide.

'Shit...' He growled to himself and rolled in mid air, allowing himself to blindly land on a tree caught with in the raging river, he knew it was there, he could tell by the way the water sounded when it moved around such a loud object. He landed on the tree and held on the branch desperately, using all of his balance to keep it from rolling over. 'Alright...Maybe I can make it...' He road the improvised raft as long as he could, and would have kept on riding it had not the streak of lighting from above allowed him to see what was in front of his face.

All of the broken logs and trees picked up by the mud slight had finally clumped together and formed an obstruction in the center of the muddy river. They were caught between two great trees that had to be as old as the forest itself, forming a natural dam that he was heading directly for. This would not be a present thing to crash into. "..." Kiba rose on to his heels, waiting for the perfect moment before he dived forward, his body just barely passing over the surprisingly high dam with a low jump, and landing safely at the end of the slope, the flat land on the other side.

'I'd never though I'd be so happy to see demons.' Aside from the mud that felt like quick sand the land was dry. This long section of land was like an island, the mud slid parted into two rivers surrounding the small section, reconvening at a later place. He was just in time, before him was the steel box now opened filled air with the cries of small children. The same black ogres were there, and the 12 fawn demons who had been some how scattered were now reconvening with the torches that must have been using chakra for the flames to keep them lit, all surrounding a signal demon. It had red skin, two horns protruding from it's head and below it's torso was the body of a horse with brown fur. A Centaur.

"Stop!" Kiba shouted, charging toward them full speed. What were they doing with all of these kids?

The centaur looked towards Kiba and his eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed frustration."It's those SDI bastards." The centaur spoke in a deep, hauntingly demonic voice. It could talk? "Hurry up!" Then it direct it's next comment to the black ogres. "Stop him dammit!"

Kiba was intercepted for the second time by ogres, the two black ogres spoke to each other in that demon language stood in his path. A dark Chakra formed in their hands, a jutsu that shooting outward to take shape in the form of an axe, and then cleared away to reveal the heavy steel of the very large battle axes. The first ogre slammed it down in front of him, Kiba nearly ran into a blade taller then himself. "No! Move dammit!" Kiba jumped to the air evadingly as the demon raked the axe against the ground in an attempt to strike him.

"Hurry up, before there rest of them show up!" The centaur shouted, rallying the fawn demons into a frenzied haste. The demon's poured into the box in a disorganized mass, the screams of the children grew even louder and more frantic as the demons climbed out with as many as they could carry. Kiba really became uneasy when he saw that some of them weren't moving, he hoped desperately that they were just unconscious. The 12 lesser demons could only manage to carry 2 of the children each, and one of them returned not carrying anything, so by the time the 12 of them were out of the box, the 11 who'd brought out children had captured 22 of the adducted humans, leaving 7 of them behind.

'How many kids did they take...how and the hell am I going to get all of them out of here?' Kiba fell on to his hands, crouching to avoid a swing of the axe by the first ogre demon and taking the opportunity to lunge forward and attack while it was still regaining itself. The second ogre lifted the ax above it's head and slammed it down on Kiba, the boy strifed to the left as the blade crashed into the ground hard enough to make a wave of mud rise out of the quaking earth, slipping under the handle. He wasn't fast enough even at his speed, the second ogre forcefully raked the axe backwards across the ground with one sharp pull, sending the edge of the axe slamming painfully into his side and penetrating a good deal into him before he was able roll out of the way. He'd just come dangerously close to being cut in half, escaping with a deep gash to his side."Aghhaaa!"

The fawn demons ran towards the forest with the captured human, escaping to some place deeper in the flow of trees. But they didn't make it to the end of the clearing, with a inconspicuous launch from some hidden place, a single Kunai drove itself into the back of a single fawn's head, causing it to drop the two girls it was carrying and fall lifelessly to the ground. Before anyone could register what had just happed, a full volley of kunais and shirukens came from different points, striking each of the demons baring children in the back. All except one holding nothing.

The final fawn's body went up in a burst of white smoke, quickly eaten away by the rain to reveal Kakashi, tired, and soaking wet. The man push a strand of his drenched hair hanging down out of his eyes, then from the darkness beyond the two rivers 6 copies bolted into the area and in a blur of black clothing picked up as many of the children they could carry, about 2 each and aligned themselves behind the real Kakashi.

"K-Kakashi?" Kiba stumbled off of the ground and attempted to run forward, only to be forced backwards when the second ogre slammed it's foot down and attempted to stomp on him. Kiba growled, one hand clinching his side as he lept into the air a considerable distance and then thrust his foot directly into it's face with a powerful kick, strong enough to make it stumble backwards and nearly fall. Kiba used the kick to propel himself backwards into the air high above the ground, just as he expected the ogre reached out for him. 'Not this time!' Kiba slipped a Kunai hidden in his sleeve into his free right hand, one equipped with two explosive tag tied to the handle and threw the weapon at the demon .

The Kunai embedded itself into it's hand and no sooner then it did, the tags detonated in a burst of light and flames, causing a haunting out cry of pain from the first ogre.

"Damnit!" The centaur cursed, charging at Kakashi full speed. The man's copies immediately scattered with the children in hand and the real Kakashi dived to the side as the centaur plowed at him, narrowly evading. "You won't ruin this! God dammit this is too important!"

"Kiba, are you alright?" Kakashi called back.

"Don't worry about me, just get those kids out of here!" Kiba landed on his feet as the first ogre stumbled around to reclaim itself, now with one arm blown off up the elbow it was forced to wield the axe with one hand. Maybe it was from rage but this was seemed to actually move faster. Kiba could hardly avoid the attacks of both of the demons, he was effectively being kept at bay. "How did you find me?"

"Akamaru " Kakashi uttered simply. The centaur turned towards him, glaring angrily. Then silently the demon stopped it's hooves on the ground and the ground beneath Kakashi erupted with out warning '!' An uprising burst of mud and dirt rushed out in a pillar driven by some unknown force, enough to catch Kakashi off guard and thrown him in the air. It hurt more then it seemed, it felt like he'd fallen from a dangerously high distance when it struck him with enough force to send his body clear over the steel container. But he regained himself, landing on his feet and sliding to a stop with relinquished momentum, he ended up behind Kiba.

Only when he was close up could he see clearly the extent of Kiba's injuries... There was no way he could fight 2 enemies in that condition, he'd sooner pass out."Kiba, I'll handle these guys." Kakashi announced. "You go hold off that centaur demon."

"But-"

"Just do it." Kakashi ordered firmly. "Just keep him away from the rest of those children." Keep then away until his copies got finished getting the other ones to safety and could come back for them.

Kiba nodded understandingly, and with Kakashi to distract the two ogres, he ran as fast as he could toward one of the rivers running along side of them. He lept over to the other side of the raging water, noticing it was gaining more and more current with the unceasing rains. Thunder crashed over head, forcing his body to flinch from the deafeningly loud sound and reclaim his scattered thoughts. Then with out farther hesitation he bolted past the ogres and the steel container before dropping down on to all fours and leaping over the raging river of mud and debris. He came face to face with the centaur.

"Get out of my way!" The centaur shouted determinedly, slamming it's hooves into the ground. Kiba could sense what was coming where Kakashi couldn't, he had a thing Kakashi didn't have, he had a heightened instinct he followed more often then not. Kiba lept to the right as the ground burst upward like an explosion, then dived forward as the ground burst directly under where he'd been standing for the second time. A growl pushed it's way past his fangs as he lunged forward and swiped it across the chest with his claws

Kakashi held his hands forward in front of him, waiting calmly as the two ogres lifted their large axes above their head and hammered it down on him in unison. But the axes halted no more then 12 inches above his head, despite the obvious attempt of the ogres to push them down farther. They were being repelled by an electromagnetic field Kakashi was emitting through a technique he'd learned. Sparks of electricity streaked across his body, sizzling from the heavy rain pouring on to him. He pushed outward, using that magnetic force he'd build around him to give the steel one last push strong enough to knock it from their hands and send it flying off into the distance.

"Ryo!" Kakashi clasped his hands together with a series of quick hand seals from the jutsu, then lifted his hand toward the sky. Lighting streaked out of the clouds, hammering down to the ground, crashing with force on to the first ogre who'd previously had it's arm blown off. Such power easily finished the injured demon off.

Kiba growled fiercely, holding his position defensively as Kakashi's copies returned and wasted no time going for the remaining children. The 6 replicas had no trouble getting the last 7, one of them simply carried two. "No! Dammit I won't let you ruin this!" The Centaur lowered it's head and charged forward at full speed, air flowed visibly across the very un-aerodynamic body with white streaks. The centaur was a near unstable force when it trashed like this, few things could stop it, and Kiba wasn't wan of them. The centaur came so fast that the injured Kiba couldn't hope to avoid in his state, the half horse slammed into him head on in an awkward gore. One of it's horns drove directly into his side while the other, thanks to his smaller size, slipped directly under his arm and dragged him off of the ground.

Kiba roared in pain as his body was tossed aside, skidding along the mud soaked ground and crashed against a tree residing only inches away from the river of mud flowing beside. "O-ow..." He wined in pain, wrapping one arm completely around his torso. He cringed as he streaked his other arm up and grabbed a hold of a branch. It was a struggle, moving and sliding around the mud in a weak struggle, but Kiba persistently pulled himself to his feet, he almost faltered after the first second.

By then Kakashi had finished off the ogres, though expending a good amount of Chakra doing so. "Kiba!" The man uninhibitedly ran towards Kiba while his copies began leaving, but unfortunately the centaur wouldn't allow them to do that easily.

Seeing all of his hopes fading away, the Centaur jumped into the air with a loud outcry. "Kakashi!" Kiba managed to scream out futilely before the centaur landed and a wave of dirt and mud burst out of the ground like a wall. Kakashi's copies bolted clear, all but one made it out of the way in time, the seventh copy holding two of the missing 4 year olds was caught in the wave of uprising earth. The only thing he could do was to save them, he threw the boy and girl he'd been carrying clear before he was engulfed and faded in a rise of smoke.

The real Kakashi was forced to stopped where he was in the interest of the child. "!" The man leaped upward using his whole body to catch the girl his copy had thrown. Kiba ran desperately for the boy, attempting to push through the injuries and run faster, but all he managed to do was stumble repeatedly. "No!"

The centaur watched the brown haired toddler fall to the wet ground in front of him but just as soon Kiba was there, falling to his knees and wrapping his free arm around the small body of the boy. "Damnit! Move!" The centaur whipped it's tail and clasped it's hands together, and with out delay the wet ground began to swirl around into a whirl pool, one Kiba was already halfway into upon it's creation.

"K-Kakashi!" Kiba made his final effort to save the small boy and tossed him up into the air, hoping Kakashi would be fast enough. He didn't get to see the end result, he was pulled quickly into the center and disappeared beneath the surface, even worse the whirl pool disappeared as soon as it swallowed him, burring him.

"Kiba!" Unfortunately since he stopped to save the girl Kakashi wasn't fast enough, The centaur caught the boy roughly by the neck and clinched the small, screaming body close to it's chest.

"I still have one...I still have one." The centaur grumbled, quickly turning around and bolting toward the forest to some unknown place.

"Kiba..." Kakashi lept over the empty steel box, stopping at the place where Kiba had been trapped. He was astonished to find that the ground didn't even look like it had been moved at all. 'No... no...' He had to decide, and it was a horrible list of choices. He could attempt to save Kiba, but if he did the boy the centaur took would have who knows what done to him who knew where because he'd never find that demon again, and Kiba may not have been able to be saved. On the other hand he could go after the centaur, but there was a good chance that during the fight the girl he was holding would be caught between and injured, fatally. This was not the ideal place to try and protect someone, especially someone as young as she was. Or lastly he could just go get the girl to safety, but that left Kiba and the boy to die. Either way someone would die. But could he sacrifice one to save-

...A haunting sound seeped up from below the surface, one not a particularly foreign, he'd heard it many times before, but it was different now, it was strange. A howl echoed through the air, seeping up through the ground, muffled because of it's trapped source. Kiba's howl sounded in that same calm sound that promised deep sadness, complete furry, or an absolute overriding of normal though with animal instinct . When Kakashi heard it he completely froze with out reason, stricken by some unfounded fear that made his body lock into place. 'What...what is this...' A cold sweat streamed down his forehead, mixing with the rain that fell on his stalled form, he knew he shouldn't have been afraid, there was really no reason to be. But something grew uneasily in him, and he could do nothing more then stand and watch while it became stronger and stronger.

A single ray of silver light burned through the blank of black clouds, falling on the spot where Kiba was buried. Another howl echoed from below, louder then the previous time, and the silver ray of light corresponded under the manipulative tones. The single, faint ray grew into many until they were one larger body, rain soaked winds pushed through the clouds just enough to reveal the new moon hanging in the calm sky above the storm, and flood the whole area with the shining radiance. 'Kiba's voice...This must be a kiaijutsu.' All of this was being done by Kiba's howls, his voice held some type of power. Kakashi was frozen by it in the same way Kiba had been when he was first bitten by the original werewolf.

That howl turned into a violent roar and a form burst from the ground in an eruption of dirt, rock and mud, landing with a sloppy, animal like agility on the ground. The gray furred werewolf Kiba stood completely transformed, his weak body peaking with the power of the risky over clocking technique. Growling fiercely as he rose and pushed himself on to his feet.

He still wore the same clothing, they were made out of spandex that looked remarkably close to the regular cotton. Every time he transformed he ended up ripping out of his clothing, and since it happened often and Kiba didn't like the idea of being completely naked in a bad situation it was the logical thing to do. With Kiba fully transformed the effect of the kiaijutsu finally wore off.

_Crack...Crack_.

"!" Kakashi didn't have time to dwell on what had just happened, he immediately looked back, turning his gaze up hill where the make shift dam that formed started to over flow. They could hear the distinct sound of wood cracking under pressure and feel the water streaming down from it intense greatly until it was small stream at their ankles. To make matters worse, a half severed tree that had been washed into the mud slide came tumbling down the hill erratically, being pushed by the flooding water's current it crashed into the obstruction, loudly breaking through the barricading wood. The water flowed freely now, plowing down hill with every bit of it's pint up force. Kakashi lept to the left and Kiba jumped to the right, Kakashi landed safely in the branch of a near by tree with his arm wrapped tightly around the girl, Kiba landed on the trunk of a tree caught in the mudslide, holding on with his claws. Kakashi had just enough time to relay one final thing to Kiba before departing to take the girl to safety. "Go after the demon."

He had complete confidence that Kiba could do it.

Kiba lept forward, diving across the ground far enough to land in front of the formerly repress section of the mud slide rapidly swallowing the path of dry land. It was pitch black again, but he didn't need the light, he could easily tell where each tree was and easily moved around them. His speed was substantial, gaining a physically strong type of agility that allowed him to weave through the entanglement of trees and heavy debris. In this form he was fast enough to temperately stay ahead of the gaining water, motivated enough to ignore his injuries to the point he didn't even feel them anymore.

There was something directly ahead, it was a light... a white light glowing faintly past the oncoming trees. He smelled the scent of a demon coming from that spot, that had to be it, that's the only thing it could be. He growled loudly as he pushed passed the trees and into the light.

The ground was marked with blood or paint inscribing a large seal, lines were glowing red while the ground radiating a soft white light. It gave Kiba a strange feeling.. There he was, the small brown haired boy laying unconscious in the center of the seal, The centaur demon standing over him with his hands clasped together in the middle of a jutsu.

His ears twitched at the incoming, gaining sound of the force of nature behind him. "!" Kiba looked back and flinched when the roaring river came spilling out of the darkness, he was sure it would wash them away. But strangely enough some invisible force kept it from touching the seal, it just parted and flowed around the glowing marking.

But Kiba wasn't thinking about that, as long as it didn't cause problems for him.

Kiba roared furiously, brown eyes shifting frantically between the boy and the centaur demon.

"What the hell!" The centaur opened it's eyes and looked almost fearfully at Kiba, focusing on the clothing the werewolf was wearing baring SDI on the black fabric of his jacket. 'It's the same guy from before...but I-'

Kiba lunged at him like a rabid dog and the same speed being a werewolf endowed him with, latching on to it's torso like a child hugging the leg of an adult. His claws dug into it's back and began tearing furiously at the flesh, bitting down into it's neck with a series of growls, roars and snarls. The air was filled with the sound of tearing, ripping and gushing, by the time he was done, which wasn't very long, there wasn't a distinguishable piece among what was left of the demon.

Finally finished with the demon that had made him so angry, Kiba slowly turned and looked at the boy laying motionlessly in the center of the seal. His gray fur now covered in blood around his mouth and claws.

He would have been sure the boy was dead had it not been for the small rising and falling of his chest. With a reluctant curiousness nature that came with the idea of learning his worst fear was true, Kiba sat down on the ground, his tail sagging limply on the muddy ground behind him as he looked down at the boy. He didn't smell alive, he didn't smell dead but he didn't smell alive...He'd never encountered anything like this. Maybe it was because of all of the rain washing his scent, maybe just because he was asleep, he'd be better when he woke up. Right? That would make him better right? It would wouldn't it? It had to.

If he'd be better when he woke up then he'd just wake him up. Kiba nudged the boy softly with his mussel, after after a few second he used his head to lightly shake the boy. It wasn't working, he wasn't waking up...Kiba gently licked the side of the boy's face, that would wake him up, that always woke people up... He still got no response.

Kiba pulled away and stared sadly at the small boy, his ears fell against his head, his tail subdued between his legs, with his fur soaked and sagging off his body he looked every bit the part of a depressed dog who'd just lost it's master. Just watching the small boy covered halfway in mud, soaking wet in ripped and tattered clothing, covered in cuts and blood, probably cold too. His face was calm with silent pain, stuck in that horrible state. He was so small... just seeing the boy like that make Kiba angry.

These glowing markings, maybe that was wrong with him! Kiba looked down at the ground between his legs and growled angrily at what he saw, taking a swiped at the glowing red lines with his claws. He began attacking every line of the markings with the same ferousness that he'd attacked The centaur with, circling the boy as he swiped, slash and dug until every line was gone and the white glow started to fade away.

Kiba wined, sitting down beside the boy again and attempting to wake him up with a few nudges from his muzzle. It wasn't working...but...but he didn't want something to be wrong with this boy, he didn't wanted him to be hurt, he didn't want him to be like this... Kiba tilted his head back and howled with his own sadness, he didn't want the boy to be like this!

...Wait! Neji! Neji could make him feel better! Neji could help him! Yeah, Neji! Kiba's tail began to come back to life, his ears perked and he lifted his head, Neji could make him all better. He had to get him to Neji.


	23. Chapter 23: Guilt

Chapter 23: Guilt

There was an air of relief that filled the room, the walls that once echoed with the cries of despair and the voices filled with worry didn't any more. The room was now saturated with cries of comfort, with the clutter of voices of relieved parents reunited with their missing children. Iruka watched from his place sitting on top of the front desk, a satisfied feeling settling over him as he watched the people happily reunite. He couldn't help but feel happy too, maybe it was a sense of empathy but when he saw them he felt like he was the one reuniting with a lost child he'd been worried sick about.

And then he saw her and that feeling faded just as quickly as it had come, this woman who was all alone, one of the single parents. His heart sank as he watched this woman with long brunet hair push her way through the crowds of contrastingly happy people to get to him, he knew as soon as he saw that sad, hopeful look on her face that something was wrong. "Excuse me." She said, taking quick glances around to be sure of her self. "Have you seen my son? He's 4 years old, brown hair and eyes, about this tall." She lowered her hand about to knee level indicatingly.

"No..." Iruka looked around just in case he saw something, another child in the crowd that wasn't with anyone, and he didn't. He smiled at her and spoke calmly and reassuringly. "But uh...I'm sure he's around here somewhere." Iruka stood up and turned towards the door, hoping that she'd find solace in his words and smile and didn't detect the sharp pang of uncertainty that followed him as he left the room and closed the door behind him. "No, it couldn't just end well." He mumbled bitterly to himself as he leaned against the door for the second time that night. What was he suppose to do now?

Luckily for him Kakashi came out of the bathroom then, having just cleaned himself as best he could on short notice and saw Iruka standing there. When ever Iruka did that he knew something was wrong. "Iruka? What is it?"

"We're missing one." He sighed. "4 year old boy with brown hair and eyes, ring any bells?"

Kakashi stood half dressed and soaked with water from the shower he'd just taken, looking up thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Well..." Did he see someone fitting that description? ...He did didn't he! "Yeah, I left Kiba behind with a boy like that."

"Where is he?"

"He should be back by now... He never came back?"

Iruka rubbed his head anxiously, if this was anything like what the boy's mother was feeling... "..." With out a word he turned and headed down the hall with quick steps, just short of running. A worried Kakashi followed behind, wondering where he was going. Iruka stopped at the supply room and walked inside the dark, closet like structure. It was the largest room on the level, stacked wall to wall with shelves formed in neat rows, holding everything from files to weapons. At the end of the room was a door, made of steel unlike the other doors in the building, the back door. It was a little heavier and took a little more effort to unlock and open.

'...' Iruka had no idea it was this bad out here, he stepped into a torrent of rain and wind shrouded by darkness he couldn't see past three feet in, the only light he had was the light cast through the door frame from the supply room. The area behind the building was wide open plains that stretched for miles with few trees, so it was muddy, the ground couldn't absorb the water fast enough. 'He's gotta be close.' From what Kakashi had told him he most definitely was near by. "Kiba!"

Kakashi ignored the cold and rain that assaulted the bare skin of his torso and looked around in the darkness, he couldn't see a thing. "Kiba!"

Lighting flashed and gave a quick photo of the area, revealing it's bareness. Kakashi moved forward towards the plains while Iruka radiated towards the side of the building. "Ki-" Iruka heard it before he ever laid eyes on Kiba, the heavy panting and conspicuous foot steps, lightening flashed across the skies and Iruka saw the werewolf standing in front of him with a small body in his arms, wincing from the loud noise that hurt his ears. "Kiba." Kiba wasn't surprised to see him transformed, he just guessed it must have been a full moon tonight or something.

"Kakashi, I found him." Iruka took the boy from Kiba and quickly ran into the light and warmth of the building. Just as soon as entered the door he stopped and dropped down to one knee, cradling the boy with his arm as he looked him over. Kakashi was behind him with his usual quickness, and Kiba sat down beside him and watched Iruka with his head hung low.

'This is him I guess...' Iruka lent down and held his ear close to the boy's mouth and nose, then pressed it against his soaked chest. "He's breathing... barely though, it sounds like something is blocking his air way." Iruka pressed his fingers against the boy's neck and his expression grew even more discouraging. "His pulse is weak, getting worse too. I don't think he'd make it all the way to the hospital in Konoha."

Kakashi wiped the water out of his eyes,"What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know...Neji, is he awake?"

"He should be..."

Iruka immediately stood up and ran towards the door, Kiba following on all fours at his heals. Neji would be able to help him better then Iruka could.

! - ! - !

Konohamaru stared up at the ceiling, looking through the dim light of the torches surrounding his room as he laid on his bed. His head pounded from the Sharingan attack that had been used on him and his sight was still uneven, he saw everything double. His body still throbbed with pain from not even getting close to winning in a fight and being thrown out of third story window.

Naruto walked down the stairs with slow, reluctant steps, walking through the shadows of the room and stopping at Konohamaru's bed. "Konohamaru?" He called out slowly, holding his hands behind his back as he looked and then shifted his eyes away.

Konohamaru didn't say anything, he just looked over at Naruto acknowledgingly.

"How's Sasuke doing?"

Sasuke was up stairs in his own room, he hadn't woken up yet. "He'll be alright, Iruka just said he needs to sleep it off." Konohamaru said, and this is why he was down here instead of upstairs with Sasuke. Since he really needed to rest too. But he wasn't getting to much of it, his mind was thinking to much to relax enough to fall asleep.

"That's good..." Naruto knew it was for a different reason, since when did Sasuke being injured keep Konohamaru from staying with him? "Well...Are you alright?"

Konohamaru nodded and looked back up at the ceiling. "Yeah."

There was a silence that followed, and Naruto just stood there, shifting around uneasily, neither of them said anything, and even though there was no reason to stay he refused to leave. Naruto kept his eyes fixed on the wall as he finally walked closer and sat down on the ground, resting his back against the side of the bed and his head back on the mattress beside Konohamaru's leg. He didn't say anything, neither of them ever said anything, Naruto just sat there.

Konohamaru was obviously feeling depressed or something that just wasn't right with him. He never said anything about it, not this time or anytime he was feeling this way before it, he simply put on a normal face and repressed whatever he was feeling. Konohamaru always repressed, putting on that same face, just like Naruto had... So Naruto stayed with him, refusing to let him slip into himself like he had done.

He tried to say something, but everything he tried to voice came out as an incoherent, stuttering rambling because of nervousness and embarrassment, the same went for Konohamaru. The whole process was unbearably awkward and uneasy for the both of them, enough to make them wish it was over as soon as it started. What was more awkward then the actual attempts to communicate were the silences, all of it was embarrassing for the both of them. And Konohamaru was more grateful for it then he could hope to describe.

'Thanks... Nii-chan.'

! - ! - !

Neji rubbed his pounding head as he leaned over the boy, the small brunet was laying on his cleared desk in the back of the library, Iruka and Kakashi watching from behind him out of his way. Kiba was loyally at the boy's side, sitting on the ground with his head resting on the table, watching hopefully. '...' Neji blinked a few time in an attempt to refocus his blurry vision, a side effect of the Sharingan attack used on him that he was still waiting to clear up. It didn't matter right now, he didn't need his vision that much.

Kiba's tail swept weakly across the ground and his eyes held a definite sadness to them, a small wine came from the werewolf, holding that same demeanor as if he was a dog who'd just lost his master. Usually Neji would have chastised him for dripping mud and water into the library, it was odd how that thought came to his mind, nothing was said to him today. And that made everything seem that much sadder to him.

"No one knows anything about what happened him?" Neji asked, checking his breathing and pulse as Iruka had done.

"Only Kiba." Kakashi told him disappointedly.

"Bakyugan!" The veins around his eyes protruded and his sight increased as it always did. Neji did a series of quick hand seals and clasp his hands together with both index fingers extended. Then he watched, looking over the boy's body on different layers. "He doesn't look too good, there's hardly any chakra in him at all. Not just in the main arteries, even the Chakra in the organs and muscles is depleted."

A faint aura resonated off of the boy's body from the jutsu being enacted, healing jutsu. But almost immediately the small body began to tremble, and the expression of silent pain grew worse.

Kiba rose on to his heels and barked, something was wrong, he could smell it.

"What the hell..." Neji grunted and tried harder, increasing the power of his jutsu. The boy's mouth fell open, and his breathing became heavy, audible pants that trembled with the convulsions.

'!' Kiba suddenly stumbled backwards with out warning, falling on to his side with his own trembling. A few weak wines escaped from him and he clinched his chest in a pained manner. No one took too much notice of it, they knew what was happening, they'd seen it too many times to be worried about it. His fur retracted into his body, his claws and fangs shrunk to normal size along with his muscles that created his larger body size. A human half breed was left behind, laying sweating and panting on the ground, dusted in blood and dirt and the open wounds across his torso still bleeding. Without hesitation he climbed to his knees and stood to his feet, usually he fell asleep after he transformed back. "W-what's...what's wrong with him?"

Neji looked over at Kiba' questioningly, since transforming back was so energy consuming he'd never seen Kiba conscious through it. "I don't know..." What ever the reason why, he was glad Kiba was conscious. "What happened?" Neji peered over the boy with his bloodline enacted, intensifying the jutsu, and congruently brightening the white aura around the boy.

"I don't know, This demon took him and I went after him." Kiba stared at the boy, backing away a distance far enough as not to inhibit Neji. "He was in the middle of some kinda sign painted in the ground, I don't know what it was."

"A what?" Neji clasp his hands together and began another series of hand seals, then he thrust his hands roughly on to the boy's chest and held him down. His own Chakra became visible in a white aura that moved over his body like slow fire and rolled off like mist. "Sign...Sign, what did it look like?"

"It was a circle with a bunch of lines that connected into some kinda design or something."

"Sign...Seal! It was a Seal!" Neji held himself steady as the white misting Chakra rolled down his eyes and washed over the small form like a morning fog. As soon as the first strand of smoke like constructive healing Chakra from the jutsu touched his body, the small boy began to shake violently. 'Oh man...' The heavy breaths became loud cries and the boy's eyes shot open, staring upward unfocused and in a daze that didn't match up to his body's pained movements.

"I don't know.." Kiba felt a rush of anxiety course through him, making his voice more frantic. "I remember there was a mud slide, it was right in the middle of it and it didn't even didn't get wet. It was glowing too."

"Damnit, he must have been sacrificed!" Neji could barely hold the boy down, attempting to keep pouring out the mist on to the boy but something was blocking it from taken effect.

"What?" Kiba's ear twitched and he winced at the sound of the boy crying in pain, he looked away, he couldn't watched this. "What do you mean sacrificed?" Kiba's voice began to shy away also, he didn't want to watch this little kid suffer, but he really couldn't keep looking away.

Neji pushed the boy down even harder, struggling to keep him on the table and keep up the Jutsu at the same time. This should have been working, as hard as the boy was breathing he should have been inhaling the mist in large amounts, and as much as he was sweating and the open wounds, it should have been absorbing in his skin. "No... " An unexpected reaction came, the boy's screaming cut off as a black substance began poring out of his mouth and nose, seeping out of his ears, and bleeding out of his pours. "No, no..."

Neji sighed and pulled his hands back, now covered with the thick black liquid that the boy was crying out from his eyes. The small boy choked, a horrible sound that was hard to listen too, it took a few more seconds, but the trembling stopped, and it was finally over. "..."

"T-That's it?" Kiba just stared at the boy, what was all that black stuff? "It's over?"

"You saved him before he could be completely sacrificed but he was just too far gone." Neji said, his Bakyugan and Chakra faded and his hands fell tiredly to his side, dripping with the black liquid.

"So... I was too late." Kiba sighed decidedly.

Neji shook his head and attempted to discourage that line of thinking. "He was already dead." His heart hadn't really been beating, that black substances just pushed the blood through the veins because of inconsistencies in the pressure. He was breathing but no air was getting to his blood, and subsequently the rest of his body. Not to mention every organ of his body was being flooded and shut down. "That black liquid was created in the sacrificing process." Produced by the loss of chakra and the absence of a soul.

Iruka sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "I guess I'll go tell his mother."

"No." Kiba objected, he looked away from the boy and walked towards the door with his eyes narrowed and his fist clinched. "I'll do it."

"Kiba." Neji reached out a hand to stop him, but then he remembered what was covering it. "You don't have to do that."

Kiba didn't listen, he simply walked through the door and slammed it behind him.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Ow...Damnit." Kiba winced as the stream of warm water struck the open lacerations on his back and sides, sending out a steady stream of blood mixing into the water, running down his leg and pooling at the drain. The dirt and mud that had found itself on to his body rinsed away cleanly. Finally it hurt too much to continue and he shut the water off quickly before he screamed at the pain. '...'

Kiba climbed out of the shower and shut the door behind him as if the water would chase him. Letting out a tense breath he'd been hold and leaned back against the glass door, with out looking he reached out and pulled a towel off a nearby rack. Drying as much as himself as he cold before even that became to painful to press the white fabric against the wounds and he just wrapped the towel around his waist.

He just stood there, staring at the wall in silence. '...' The memory replayed in his mind, the boy, the mother, the demon, the seal, until he couldn't stand seeing it anymore. He shook his head and quickly stormed out of the bathroom, crossing the contrastingly cooler air of the main hall to Iruka's room only a few doors down from the bath room. He kept the same quite demeanor as he reluctantly opened the door and walked in, his tail hanging down between his legs and his ears flat against his low hanging head.

Iruka was waiting for him, surprisingly Gaara was there too. Gaara had a bowl in his hands with a thick liquid that looked like dough and nearly as thick, Iruka was searching through a cabinet beside his bed for other medical supplies. "Kiba?" Iruka looked over his shoulder with a quick glance and then turned back to his task. "Just sit down on the bed, I'll be right there." Iruka found what he was looking for and came back to the bed with all off it in his arms.

"So..." Iruka opened up a bottle and began pouring the contents on a small cloth. "Are you alright?" Iruka sat down behind Kiba and pulled himself a little closer.

Kiba was getting really sick of people asking him that question. "I'm fine."

"Hn...This is going to sting."

"Sting? Wha-" '!' Kiba's eyes widened and his body cringed when an intense burning pain came rushing on to his back. "Ahhaaa!What the hell!"

"Sorry." Iruka had to clean Kiba's wounds, since his spars shower could only do so much. Kiba healed quickly, being a werewolf, all of the deep lacerations would be gone by the end of the weak, which was why Iruka had to clean them now, since if anything stayed in them it would cause painful complications and infections. "I'll try to be quick..." Iruka quickly began pouring and dabbing the antiseptic liquid into the gashes on Kiba's back, and since he was already screaming, Iruka did the ones on his torso to.

"Couldn't have given me a better warning then that?" Kiba growled in a voice that sounded oddly close to a hurt child, hugging his chest protectively.

"It's best to get it over with quickly." Iruka told him sympathetically, he picked up the half bloody towel and the antiseptic and stood up, going to put them away. "Alright Gaara."

Gaara sat down behind Kiba before Kiba even noticed him, Gaara always had a tendency to surprise people, since he never said anything, or rarely made noise. "Gaara? What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" Gaara's half monotone voice quirked with the light hint of inquisitional.

"I never imagined you doing something like this." Kiba folded his arms and waited patiently, everything sill hurt, throbbing with a ache. But it wasn't as bad as it was before Iruka put on the antiseptic, the cold air didn't sting him as much, his still damp state didn't agitate the exposed flesh.

Gaara unraveled a section of the bandages from the roll and ripped it cleanly off, then he dipped it in the thick liquid just as Iruka had taught him. As soon as it was soaked, Gaara pressed the strip against Kiba's back and pressed it on over the wounds so they stuck, they felt like plaster. Kiba didn't even feel it, what ever it was on those bandages numbed his pain even more, not to say the wounds themselves didn't still hurt. "Why not?" Gaara asked in that same voice that made it hard to tell if he was even asking a question. He didn't seem that interested in an answer.

"You don't seem like the type of person that would want to deal with other people." Kiba said. "Or do something like fix me up. Why are you doing this?"

"I just needed to learn it." Gaara said simply, maybe it was because he'd seen Naruto get hurt too many time and he lacked the ability to do something about it. When going on missions they often split up and Naruto and Gaara were a usual team. Or maybe it was because he grew an attached worry for all of his teammates, medical skills were ones that were for helping people. Maybe he just wanted to help, maybe he needed to help.

"Yeah." Kiba shifted around a bit to allow Gaara access to his chest and stomach. "I guess , but to be fair I never figured you be the type to listen to music either."

"Hn."

"Does it help?" Kiba asked.

"What?"

"The music." Kiba laid back on the bed and propped himself up on to his elbows to allow Gaara to better reach his stomach. "You gotta be listening to it for a reason."

"I like it." Gaara said plainly.

"Obviously, but you had to have started listening to it for a reason." Kiba looked back at him curiously. "Why did you start anyway?"

Gaara ripped off more of the bandages and dipped it into the off white mixture. "Because I promised my self I would."

Kiba just nodded, he wouldn't ask how he ended up promising something like that. "So does it help?"

"What do you mean?"

"You must have started when you did for a reason." Kiba reasoned. "So why?"

"I... don't remember. " Gaara may or may have not have been focused on why he didn't remember something like this, it was hard to tell.

"I guess it can't be helped."

"Hn." Gaara laid the last strip across Kiba's chest and stepped back to check his work.

"I'm sure it's good." Kiba shifted his eyes back down to the ground with that same feeling of oppressive sadness that had been hanging over him all night. He hadn't even noticed it when he was talking with Gaara, he was so confused to see him doing medical work that he forgot all about it.

"Yes, it's perfect." Iruka returned to Kiba's side with another roll of dry bandages, he knelt down in front of the half werewolf and began wrapping them over the wet ones. "It's getting pretty late." By late he meant one in the morning. "You should go to bed."

"Yeah, I guess."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"So this is where you've been." Neji softly closed the door behind him as he entered. It was ironic that the last place he'd expected to find Kiba was in Kiba's room, since he was never here. Kiba always liked Neji's study in the library better, it had a completely different air to it. Kiba's clothes were even mixed in his. "Hiding."

Kiba sat on the side of the bed towards the wall, his eyes fixed on the ground, and his back was turned from the door. His ears perked at the sound and he lifted his head. "I'm not hiding." Actually he had been hiding, he really felt like being alone right now.

Neji sat down beside him and examined his face carefully. "What's with you? Are you alright?"

He was getting really sick of hearing people ask him that. "I'm fine." He said, his voice showing every bit of his annoyment.

It didn't take Neji very long to figure out he wasn't. "No your not."

"Yes, I am." Kiba muttered. "Just leave me alone."

"What's wrong with you?" Neji asked expectantly, Kiba rarely hid anything he was feeling, he was always outspokenly blunt, so why start now?

"What's wrong with me?" Kiba growled, what little patience he had finally fading. He looked at Neji with a hard glare, not betraying one bit of his anger. He was unusually quick to anger... "What's wrong with me is people who keep asking me am I alright! I'm fine goddammit! Lay off me!"

"Your not fine." Neji said, not changing his tone at all despite the sudden yelling. Kiba's quick irritation was his first sign that something was really bothering him.

Kiba growled in frustration, this was so aggravating! "Stop telling me what I am! You keep making a bigger deal out of this then it is!"

"I know you Kiba." Neji folded his arms. "If you were fine then you wouldn't be yelling."

Kiba stared at him with narrowed eyes, he abruptly stood to his feet, looking down at Neji with every bit of his anger burring in his voice and expression. "I'm yelling because you guys keep bothering me about this crap! Leave me the hell alone!"

"I'm not going to leave you alone until you stop being so stubborn and talk to me." Neji looked down at the ground, it hard but he was trying his best not to raise his voice and stay calm about it, him yelling wouldn't help. Kiba wasn't making that easy for him though, he was starting to get frustrated himself.

Not nearly as frustrated as Kiba was, his hands clinched into tight fist at his sides and his expression took on a fierceness, his fangs baring with each word he shouted out. "Then stop being stupid and listen to me! There is nothing to talk about!"

Neji just snorted and turned his head away. "You can't just ignore it, the problem wont go away, and neither will I."

"Leave me alone!" Kiba growled animalisticaly, nearly roaring.

Neji persistently shook his head. "No."

Kiba narrowed his eyes violently, he would have said something but he felt like there was no point, he didn't want to have this conversation. It was 3 in the morning, Hell, he didn't need to have this conversation, he didn't even need to be here! He only turned away and walked with angry steps toward the door.

Neji didn't move, he just sat there on the edge of the bed, his back turned away from the door, and his eyes facing the walls. His voice didn't change at all, still keeping that calm, understanding to it. If Kiba was going to just walk out then he wouldn't try and make him stay, but still... "It wasn't your fault."

Kiba only got his hand on the door knob when those words made him freeze, those words made him stop when nothing else Neji said would. They echoed in his head, over and over in taunting ring, growing louder and louder until Kiba cringed inwardly and he couldn't stand it. This was making him crazy!

"Not my fault?"

Kiba's voice wasn't loud when he said this, something in his throat made him choke up and his words weak for an uncountably long number of seconds before it passed and his normal range of volume returned.

He let go of the door and turned towards Neji, his shoulders trembling with rage. His steps were slow but steady as he made his way back over to where Neji was sitting and looked him in the eye with a hard look. "Not my fault!"

"It wasn't your fault." Neji repeated.

"It was! Don't patronize me! Don't tell me it wasn't my fault!" Kiba shouted.

The rain out side slowed to a light drizzle, lighting flashed just as close as ever, painting the two figure's showy imprints on the wall for a split second. The thunder was distant when it crashed in the sky now, not nearly as loud as it had been before. Neji looked up at him fully now, staring him in the eyes with a trembling gaze, he was holding back. "It wasn't."

"Don't tell me that!" Kiba growled, lifting his fist and taking a step forward with the same fury. "You weren't there! You don't know that!"

"I do know that." Neji shot back, more emotion came in to his voice this time, seeping slowly into the monotone calmness he was trying to hold up. "There was no way this could have been-."

"Goddamnit Neji! Stop telling me that! You didn't see what happened! You can't tell me that!" He growled. "You don't get to tell me that! The only person that can tell me that is that kid, and he can't now!"

Neji grunted in his own frustration, he wasn't even listening to him! He wasn't even trying to listen! Maybe it was because they all had a long day and he didn't feel like having a one sided argument at 3 in the morning, but his patience faded quicker then normal. Neji pushed himself off the bed stood up, giving Kiba a look harsh enough to rival the look he was getting. "Damnit It wasn't your fault! Stop blaming this on your self!"

"You don't get it! It was me!" Kiba yelled. "I could have-"

"No! You couldn't have!" Neji shouted just as loudly and angrily.

"Yes I could have!" Kiba retorted, "I could have gotten there sooner! I could have saved that kid!"

Neji rolled his eyes. "Stop being so stubborn! Your just taking the easy way out because you feel guilty! "

Lighting flashed beyond the window and thunder rolled across the sky, Kiba's frustration doubled, those words still echoing in his head, haunting him. "You think I'm just saying this? I'm not fucking imagining this!"

"You are!"

"I'm not! Goddamnit I could have got to that kid!"

"Stop staying that!" Neji yelled, before he realized he and Kiba were standing so close that their noses almost made contact, he hadn't realized ether one of them were moving forward. "You keep saying that! Stop taking the easy way out! You keep blaming yourself because you don't want to think about it! This is stupid! Just shut up think about it!"

Think about it? That's all he he'd been doing! He didn't even want to, he wasn't even trying! It showed in his mind, every single move Kiba had move, every single one of the demons he fought he could account for, and that boy...How he died, how such a small body had that ubiquitous expression of terror and pain on his face. The look on his mother's face when he told her, when he showed her. It just played over and over and over!

Until he couldn't take it anymore, he wasn't listening! He didn't understand! And he just repeated it wasn't your fault, adding to that torment echo. He couldn't take it! Kiba clinched his head and roared in a swell of fury, in one blind movement he reached out and grabbed Neji by the shoulders and slammed him against the wall hard enough to send a sharp fracture along the harden surface and create an imprint.

Neji looked up at him in complete surprise, every bit of it showed on his face and in his eyes as he stare up into Kiba's brown one's, trembling with the same rage just as strong as ever. A small impact was formed at Neji's back, Kiba's claws dug into his shoulder hard enough to draw blood, and his hands and arms shook Silence followed, neither of them said anything for only a few seconds, but it seemed infinitely longer to Neji...

Then... Kiba's grip loosened and then the half werewolf sunk to his knees in a sloppy motion and cried. His arms needly hugged Neji's waist, his face buried into the other boy's stomach and miserable sobs forced their way out of his mouth. "I...I..."

Neji's initial surprised faded when he realized Kiba had just broke down in front of him, though his back hurt a little bit and he had been angry, he didn't care. "Kiba, it wasn't your fault, just let it go." Neji rested his hand on Kiba's head and made soothing motions.

"I-I could have saved him! B-But...I was scared." Kiba forced himself to admit. The sound of rain pounding against the window was accented by a sudden roll of thunder causing Kiba's ears to perk, but they were pushed down right after from Neji's petting. "I hesitated! I couldn't see anything, and it was so loud that it hurt, and they were everywhere but I couldn't smell them. I didn't know where I was going and I didn't know what was out there and I hesitated, a lot!"

"Kiba..."

"I'm sorry, I so, so sorry..." Kiba pleaded, he hugged tighter. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to."

Neji reached down and pulled Kiba up, despite his reluctance to let go of his waist, and settled him on to his feet. Kiba looked away reluctantly, his eyes fixed on the ground and the blood tented claws hanging at his side. He couldn't look him in the eye anymore. "It's alright." Neji reassured him.

Kiba looked away even farther receding from Neji's gaze, trying to hide almost. "I saw him...when that demon took that kid I hesitated, and I got hit...It was my fault..."

"No..." Neji shook his head, his eyes fixed on Kiba. "Did you try your absolute hardiest to save him?"

"... Yeah, I tried."

"Then that's all you could do." Neji comforted. "You saved all of those other kids."

"Yeah...maybe." He half joked, Kiba leaned forward, tears still falling down his face. He felt so, so horrible, no matter what Neji had said he still felt the guilt. Neji wrapped his arms around Kiba and pulled him into a hug, and he couldn't explain it but it helped. It suppressed the feeling unsettled deep in his stomach and it pushed the repeating images away. "I'm sorry..."

Neji rested his hand under Kiba's chin and lifted his head, noting how Kiba couldn't seem to look him in the eyes anymore, slowly he kissed away the tears on his cheek and pressed his lips to Kiba's. It gave all the answer Kiba needed, it comforted him farther, it pushed away the feelings of anger and guilt even more. He needed this right now, he wanted more of it, maybe then he could get the images out of his head... maybe then he could forget about it.

Kiba pushed deeper in to the kiss, his tongue becoming almost combative with hunger and need. Neji suddenly placed his hands on Kiba's waist and switched their positions with a swift turn and pull, pressing Kiba against the wall in his place instead. An interesting smirk came on to his face as he pulled away from the kiss, showing every bit of his intentions.

"Heh. "Kiba gave a wolfish grin, tilting his head back as Neji slid his tongue along his jawline, sliding the slick warmth down to Kiba's neck with soft, wet kisses. Kiba's tail shifted against the wall and his ears twitched with his anticipation, unfortunately for him his anxiety to move was quelled when Neji took hold of his hands and pinned them against the wall.

Neji's soft kiss moved down Kiba's throat until his lips met the boy's shoulder. He pulled on the collar of Kiba's shirt, tugging it down until his tongue could reach Kiba's collar bone, also reveling the bandages surrounding Kiba's torso. He didn't go farther, he couldn't. '...' Neji just nodded to himself and gave Kiba a small, chastising kiss, pulling back just as Kiba began to even start.

He dropped down to one knee and wrapped one arm around Kiba's waist while the other began unbuttoning Kiba's shorts. He slipped his fingers into Kiba's boxers and pulled them down along with his pants, letting them fall down around his ankles and reveling Kiba's already hardened erection. "Kiba, your so hormonal."

"I can't help it." Kiba smirked. "You do it to me."

Neji leaned forward and wrapped his mouth around Kiba's member, immediately drawing a deep sigh from Kiba. His tongue ran over the warm flesh, sliding the warm appendage along the bottom of his cock. "Uh..." Kiba tensed enough to make his injured muscles hurt, he lifted his head off he wall and clinched his eyes shut tightly, moaning lightly as the throbbing pain in his torso began ebbing away, replaced by an intensifying pleasure.

The tip of Neji's tongue gave small, teasing licks to the head of Kiba's cock while mouth sucked the whole length. Kiba was filled with a growing energy that caused him to squirm under the administrations, "Neji..." He tried to thrust upward into Neji's mouth, heavy, canine like paints emitted from his slightly parted mouth. But Neji's arm wrapped around Kiba's waist kept him from moving. "Uhhh... "

Neji began sucking harder, he pulled Kiba's waist forward and drew all of his member into his mouth. "N-Neji!" Kiba's head fell back against the wall and he bit down on his lip to keep from crying out as he was pushed to his limit. His cum streamed from his flushed cock, spilling into Neji's awaiting mouth and leaving him panting for his breath. "Neji..."

Neji stood to his feet, reclaiming Kiba's mouth in a full kiss, their tongues meeting between parted lips with all of the pint up energy Kiba had burning in him. His tail wagged frantically, inhabited by the wall it was pinned against, showing every bit of his excitement. He wrapped his arms around Neji's back, pulling him closer, deeper, his tongue moving with more energetic motions. Neji's returned the embrace, closing his arms around Kiba, careful of the wounds on his back as his hands slid downward and took a hold of the back of Neji's legs. "Are you alright?" Neji asked, indicating the lacerations across his torso.

"Fine." Kiba barely gave an answer before pushing himself hungrily back into the kiss. Neji indulged his haste and wrapped both arms fully under Kiba's legs, then lifted him off ground, pinning his back firmly against the wall for leverage. Kiba wrapped his arms around Neji's neck and his legs around Neji's waist congruently, tilting his head back again as Neji pulled away and began kissing along Kiba's cheek.

Neji held Kiba up momentarily with one arm as he began unbuttoning his own pants. "Ready?"

Kiba tightened his arm hold around Neji's neck and nodded as Neji finally freed his erection and pressed it against Kiba's entrance. Neji ran his hand over Kiba's softening member and scoped some of his cum, giving his own cock a few quick strokes before slipping his free arm under Kiba's other leg. Then with a rough motion he thrust upward in to Kiba's entrance.

"Uh..." Kiba bit down on his bottom lip almost hard enough to draw blood, clinching his eyes shut. Neji began pounding into Kiba's body, the full length driving his cock into the heat of the tight muscles that seem to grow tighter the farther he went. He strived to go deeper into the warmth, thrusting upward harder with each movement. "Ahaa." A moan made it's past Kiba's clinched jaw, he panted, gasping to reclaim air that was elusively forced out of his lungs with each movement Neji made inside of him.

It hurt, it was rough and hard. And Kiba loved every moment of it, the pain, though a good measure of it, only made the pleasure it came in hand with that much better. "N-Neji!" Kiba's arms dropped loosely to his side and his claws bore in to the wall he was pinned against. Neji leaned forward and pushed himself into a kiss, his tongue gently licking at at Kiba's lips, asking for entrance. Kiba opened his mouth and willingly sunk into it, letting out a soft groan as he felt his rehardened erection rubbing against Neji's chest.

Neji began moving faster, harder, he pulled Kiba down to meet his growingly intense thrust. After attempting to ignore it, His legs finally gave way and dropped down to his knees then fell into a sitting position, pulling Kiba down with him and on his knees in his lap. Neji's full length was forced into Kiba's body, drawing in interesting reaction. Kiba wrapped his arms around Neji's neck needly and laid his head on the other boy's shoulder, a distinct whine weakly sounding from him. Neji couldn't help but smirk inwardly when he heard that as he did when ever he heard the weak sound...

Kiba's wines grew louder when he felt his cock pressed between the two of them, being rubbed inbetween their conflicting torsos. Neji pushed harder, he was close... "Kiba...Uhaaa!" Neji cringed and clinched his jaw, silently giving a few last jabbing thrust and pushed himself in to completion. His cock spilled his seed deep into Kiba and quickly filled him, it streamed down his erection and overflowed, falling on to Neji's pelvis.

Kiba's small wines turned into a loud outcry, his body trembling softly as he came soon after. Neji quickly pulled him to a kiss, muffling the loud sound as a spurt of the creamy liquid spilled over the both of them, equally coating their torsos. Neji unexpectedly lost his balance from some manner of fatigue soon after and fell on to his back, with Kiba landing on his chest more tired then when he first started.

Gasping to reclaim his lost breath, Kiba's head fell on to Neji's shoulder again, his arms keeping a lose hold around Neji's back. Almost ritualistically Kiba began licking Neji's shoulder, running his tongue over the bloody spot where he'd sunk his claws in before, something he always did out of some manner of instinct. Neji just laid silently, allowing Kiba to do so how ever long he felt the need too.

The sound of rain lessened against the window, the flash of lighting had dimmed slightly from the distance the storm had gotten, and the thunder was almost non-exsistant. Neji didn't know how long they stayed like that, but when he noticed the storm outside had past that he realized it was longer then he thought.

"Feel better?" Neji asked.

Kiba's tail still sagged lifelessly when it usually would have been wagging excitedly after sex, that unbearable feeling of guilt and depression that swelled up from his stomach was starting to return. "Not really..." At least for a while he had, and he was grateful for the reprieve.

"It wasn't your fault." Neji reasused him, wrapping his arms around him in a soft embrace.

"Yeah..." Kiba shrugged. "But then why do I feel like it was?"

Neji just rubbed his back soothingly, he really couldn't answer that. But that was one thing he liked about Kiba.

! - ! - !


	24. Chapter 24:A day off

Chapter 24: A day off.

Today felt good.

But that probably only was because he hadn't slept more then 3 hours in the last week. Iruka opened his eyes with a sleepy, half open gaze, shifting around in a more comfortable then normal bed under warmer then normal blankets. There really was nothing like sleep depravation to make someone appreciate a full night's rest.

Iruka stretched his arm above his head and opened his mouth wide with a yawn, squinting his eyes lightly from the light beaming in from the window, he wondered what time it was... "Mmm..." Iruka planted his hands behind him and sat up, glad to be rid of the sluggishness that plagued him for the past 6 days. With a small flex of his back he slipped out of the bed and trekked across the room, he noticed about halfway across that like his appetite was back and bluntly announcing it's presence. So much so that the need for food took precedent over getting dressed.

Iruka's hand fell to his stomach consolingly as it growled loudly and stirred uncomfortably, one thought came to his mind. 'Breakfast.' Though in nothing but his boxers, Iruka ventured out into the main hall and headed toward the kitchen.

Only when he was alone and all was silent and empty did his mind start to notice things. 'This place is so big...' He couldn't help but feel like he was in a mansion when walked down this hall in the morning.

The feeling of being in a large house was strange since this place really was a business, the only people who saw that side of it among them besides himself was Sasuke, who kept rather meticulous records of everything they did, and Kiba who did budgeting. '...' Iruka smiled at the thought of trying to fill out one of Sasuke's a forms, the Uchiha boy apparently always took notice of every miniscule detail of every situation and he expected everyone else too by the 5 pages on average for the forms required after every mission.

And Kiba surprised him with how well he handled money, Iruka didn't think he could handle the budget better himself. Every single dollar spent was mapped out to the detail of Sasuke's records, though he suspected some of Neji's help and influence, everything was worked out even to anticipate any future problems that could and most likely would happen. It turned out that Kiba could easily spend someone else's money, but when it was his he was oddly controlling...

Iruka looked to his left when he heard the sound of Kakashi walking out of his own room, "Kakashi? Oh, Good morning." Iruka greeted.

"Good morning Iruka-sama."

'?' Iruka froze, he'd know that sound anywhere! Well... it wasn't as if there was any thing strange about the voice, the voice was fine, it was just the words the voice said. '-sama?' Iruka looked back suspiciously at Kakashi. "Hey..."

Kakashi looked at him nervously when he realized his mistake, aside from the fact that he was wearing the uniform of a high ranking Konoha shinobi that was slightly duller then the actual uniform, the real Kakashi didn't call Iruka that. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and smiled uneasily under the mask, hoping Iruka wouldn't think too deeply. "Uh...what is it?"

"Your not the real Kakashi!" He pointed accusingly, causing the doppelganger to flinch at the realization.

The double dropped his head with a sigh, he could never catch a break. "How come I'm fake and he's real? How do you know he's not my copy?"

"Because your a demon!" Iruka shouted, this wasn't what he expected to wake up too this morning.

The copy lifted his hand to his chin and looked up thoughtfully. "Well I guess it would be a conflict of interest, considering your profession and all." He said...then a few seconds later a realization came to his expression. "He wait, half of you guys are part demons-"

Iruka lifted his hand to his forehead and rubbed his fingers. "Why am I having this conversation with you!"

Kakashi lifted his hands surrenderingly, he was gonna wake everybody up. "Ok, Ok, calm down Iruka-sama. Man, I can't get a break." He said pleadingly. "I'm not here to start any trouble or anything." He was never here to start trouble.

"Weren't you looking for Kakashi?" Iruka asked in a chastising tone.

"Not really, I was looking for you." The copy told him, smiling again. "It's too early to deal with..._him_." Last part pertaining to his original was said with a harsh, venomous tone, not hiding any of his hate.

'Him...' Speaking of Kakashi and hate...Iruka knew he probably shouldn't have even wanted to keep speaking to him, but the curiosity was really bothering him. He had to ask...but he thought better of doing it here, since there was always the chance Gaara was awake or Kiba just happened to pick up the scent, if they found the Doppelganger then he'd never know. "Come on." He grabbed Kakashi's hand and pulled him abruptly along with little more then those words, Kakashi had no protest as he was nearly dragged into the storage room with the door closed behind him.

"Uh Iruka-sama?" Kakashi reached out along the wall in the dark room and turned on the light, he'd been here enough to know where just about every small thing was. "What's with all the pulling?"

Iruka let out a deep breath and leaned against the door beside the copy, this was the only demon he'd ever be comfortable staying this close too, he obviously wouldn't hurt him. Which was the nature of his question. "Why...Do you hate Kakashi so much, and give me a real answer." Iruka's expression softened a little and he looked away slightly. He couldn't understand it, he was so...normal and really nice, so why was he so hateful of Kakashi. "Don't tell me if you don't want to, but really think about it if you are."

Kakashi stared at Iruka with slight awe, he'd never talked to him like this before, no one had spoken to him like this actually. Iruka was so nice! How could he not give him a well thought out answer... And he did think about it, he folded his arms and stared upward silently for a few silent moments, then finally responded. "Honestly...I don't know, I'm fine when he's not around but when I see him..." The copy flinched his fist and tensed at the thought of his counterpart, "I really don't know why but when I see him I'm just filled with all this hate and I simply...want to kill him." His focused stayed fixed on Iruka when he said this, and he saw the look he was fearing he'd see. That unease, that fearful look that came into Iruka's eyes, that look that came to everyone when they realized who he was. And he hated it the most when he saw it in this person. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Uh..." Iruka looked away, feeling a pang of guilt for his reaction. But how else could he react, how did he expect him to react? He wanted to kill his friend. "I guess it can't be helped. Your a demon."

"..." The doppelganger didn't say anything, he just continued to look away. Maybe now would be a good time to leave.

"Hey...What's that?" Iruka leaned towards him curiously, glancing under the collar of Kakashi's vest. Something interesting had prompted him to notice it, a scent, he smelled something like he'd never smelled before. With out warning he suddenly tugged on Kakashi's left shoulder, pulling the surprised demon off balance and made him lean just enough for Iruka to see the flesh of interest.

"Whoa!" Kakashi nearly fell from the sudden action. "What? What?"

There was a cut on the side of his neck, a small one, but a deep for it's size. From the open wound poured a silver liquid, like melted steel, Iruka swiped his finger over it and examined it with a child's interest. "Is this blood? Where'd you get that cut?"

"Demon." He said in a shaky voice, though the trembling was only because of his odd positioning. "I needed something to do...!" A sharp surprise swept through him as his frail balance finally gave way and he was sent tumbling to the ground. "!"

"Oh, sorry." Iruka smiled apologeticly, quickly dropping to his knees and pulling the copy, now flat on his back, up right. "I...got distracted..."

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head where it had impacted with the hard floor, "Ow... What do you mean distracted?" He looked back at the man with slight annoyance...but that annoyance quickly faded when he saw just how distracted Iruka had become.

So distracted that Iruka didn't even hear what he'd just said nor the look he'd just gotten. He just stared down at his blood stained finger with an odd interest, looking on at the substance that was almost metallic in appearance. He wasn't sure where it had come from, but this strong urge, desire, rose up in him when he looked at it He didn't care what it was and why it came on the way it did, all he wanted... Iruka closed his eyes and slowly ran his tongue over his finger, tasting, devouring the demonic blood. Normally he would have found nothing pleasurable about the taste of blood, he'd held the taste of his own blood in his mouth enough to know, but today there was something different. Today flavors he hadn't ever tasted before came out, today he found some type of substance in it.

It was amazing.

"I-Iruka?" Kakashi wasn't as surprised by the action as he was by Iruka's reaction, the fact that Iruka didn't immediately point out the fact that blood wasn't something one would eat, and didn't say anything at all about it was stranger to him then the act itself.

Iruka opened his eyes slightly to peer down at the double as if only to make sure he was there, then let them fall closed again as he planted his hands on the demon's shoulders and leaned froward, slowly running his tongue over the cut on Kakashi's neck. Sure the doppelganger found it strange, but that didn't mean he wasn't completely tempted to let Iruka continue doing this, it felt soothing to the laceration. But if he was going to let this happen in good conscious, he had to ask why Iruka picked _this_ particular act. "Iruka-sama, it feels _really_ good and all." He started.

Iruka quickly pulled back when he realized what he was doing, "I...Uh..." He couldn't say he didn't realize what he was doing, he just couldn't stop himself, he didn't want to stop himself. 'Whoa, what's wrong with me?' "Sorry."

"You should keep going." Kakashi smirked impishly. "I'll start."

Iruka's eyes narrow and he swiftly punched the demon across the head. "Alright, you can go now."

"Alright, Alright." The doppelganger laughed and lifted his hands defensively."I won't be too far Iruka-sama!" He called back, just before his body faded in a blur of skillful speed.

"That's what I was afraid of." Iruka rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh, and finally he stood up and walked out of the storeroom. He wasn't hungry anymore, his apatite had all but faded... Iruka leaned against the closed door and let his head fall back when the realization echoed in his mind, it wasn't food he was hungry for. In fact he found himself licking his lips to find a single taste of the blood that had passed through before...

And when he caught himself he immediately clasped his hands over his mouth, 'W-what is this! Why...'

"Iruka-sensei?" A sleepy voice sounding unexpectedly from his side made Iruka flinch and quickly look around as if he'd been caught doing something wrong. Sasuke took notice, he was by all rights a morning person so he was fully aware with his usual attention to detail. "Are you ok?"

Iruka didn't know who he was expecting but it wasn't Sasuke, so he allowed himself to relax. "Oh, Sasuke, good morning." He pushed himself off the door and stood up, "How are you, are you feeling better?"

Sasuke looked down ominously at his chest, and contemplated telling Iruka of the full extent of what happened yesterday, the eye that had buried itself in his torso and had yet to be seen again. But his first impression of the older man this morning made him think twice about it. "I'm fine."

"That's good." Iruka nodded. "Maybe you should take the day off and get some rest."

"I'll be alright."

"Maybe...but if you don't feel 100 percent, or you just have second thoughts you can go back and get some more rest at any time."

"I'll manage." Sasuke said dismisatively. Though it didn't sound so convincing when his stomach began growling.

Iruka smiled, "Come on, I'll go make you some breakfast."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"You really think you can beat me?" Naruto snickered confidently. He stood surrounded by trees, 30 miles out to the forest, the same one Kiba's mission had taken him deep into the night before. At first he'd come here simply to look around, and he was pretty surprised at the destruction, but it wasn't too long before Konohamaru came looking for him and challenged him to a fight.

They stood on muddy ground, surrounded by damaged and half severed trees, a few almost completely drawn out of the ground by the roots. Konohamaru stood ready, holding the metal Kunai's Kisame had made for him. "I've gotten a lot better!"

"Really?" Naruto folded his arms and smirked, he had to admit he was curious.

Konohamaru pressed the ends of the blades together and blue cords of Chakra appeared, then he threw one of the blades forward, and a surprised Naruto flinched and quickly stepped to the side as it reeled past him and dug itself into the trunk of a large tree. Then Konohamaru tossed the other Kunai behind him, and it dug itself into another half uprooted tree that seemed hundreds of years old. The blue cord stretched at lest 50 feet across the small clearing, and Konohamaru agilely leapt onto the wire. "Yeah, I have!"

"Alright then." Naruto knelt down to the ground and planted his hands in to the muddy surface. "I see you learned a few tricks, you _really_ think you've gotten good?"

Konohamaru started spinning his Chakra, he'd done it so much by now that it had become second nature to him. "Yeah."

"Then lets make this a little more interesting." Naruto closed his eyes with the same smirk on his face as he began concentrating. Konohamaru knelt down on the rope and watched Naruto carefully, what was he doing...and why did he hear the ground sizzling...and why was the mud bubbling? "Wildfire!"

"!" Konohamaru flinched and immediately jumped back in surprise as flames burst out of the ground, erupting out over the whole clearing. "W-What the hell?"

Naruto jumped on to the wire, though he wobbled slightly, he had much less ballance then Konohamaru. 'That doesn't matter...' It didn't matter, since it really wouldn't matter if he fell, Konohamaru on the other hand...

"What is this?" Konohamaru looked nervously about him, feeling the heat of the flame rising up all around him.

"So? Wanna back out?" Naruto asked with a victorious tone to his voice.

Konohamaru swallowed hard and shook his head, he'd be fine as long as he didn't fall, and Naruto would fall long before he would. "No way!"

! - ! - !

Thankfully for Sasuke no missions had come about, either that or Iruka was screening them for him. He didn't care, if Iruka was doing that then today he didn't mind. He was content to just sit in a tree branch just outside and think to himself.

He couldn't stop looking down at his hands, he didn't know why but he expected to see _it_ there. Sasuke grunted in frustration, he wasn't even sure what it was, all he knew was that it was inside of him and that made him uneasy in his own body. And he couldn't stop staring at his hands, he felt like an idiot but something made him think that it would just pop out there.

That goddamn eye.

Come on! What kind of demon puts an eye in somebody? A parasite he could understand, maybe something that would poison you, or rip you apart from the inside, that would be perfect for a demon. But an eye? Why an eye? Sasuke involuntarily shuttered at the thought of it crawling around inside of him.

Wait, if it was crawling around inside of him, why didn't he feel it? "Hmm..." Sasuke stared up through the patchy leaves at the rays of sun shining through, maybe it hadn't happened at all? Maybe it just seemed that way, it could have just been a Sharingan attack. Or else he'd feel it!

Sasuke felt relieved at the realization, he didn't think he could stand the thought any longer.

! - ! - !

He never had mundane thoughts such as these on a normal basis, it only happened after he began sleeping again after a period of deprivation. Gaara had been devoid of sleep for the past week, he'd stayed up for helping Iruka out since the man didn't have the energy to fight demons and manage SDI. He found himself helping Iruka a lot lately, he really wanted to help Iruka.

Gaara sat in his customary spot in the center of a large river not too far off, himself positioned directly under the forceful current of the waterfall connecting it to higher ground. The water pounded in to his bare shoulders and sheeted off of him, rising from point of connection with the ground in a heavy mist. And while he sat there with black headphones nesseled over his unruly red hair and clamped tightly over his ears, music blaring loud enough to over power the sounds of the raging river. He couldn't help but have another mundane thought.

How much money had he spent on this interest of his? His room was stacked with more CD's then he could possibly listen too, he had at lest 10 replacements of CD players for those lost in fights. The one he was listening to right now, which he'd taken a liking too and it was decidedly his favorite, was expensive on it's own, it had to be to withstand a waterfall. He'd put the most money into this one, making it impact resistant and water resistant, and he spent almost as much replacing some of the CDs he really liked. It wasn't that he particularly cared about money, he didn't spend it on anything else.

'...' Gaara narrowed his eyes in annoyment, he wasn't he daydreaming type, but he couldn't stop his mind from wandering off. He couldn't stop it from doing so for the last hour, and he was having no luck concentrating now. Maybe he should just give up on this, simply go find Naruto and go to sleep, he'd be fine then, he could focus then.

Did Iruka ever finish?

Most of what Iruka had been doing was paperwork, Gaara never imagined how many forms would be involved. He didn't know that for each company and small business they brought out in different villages and even countries, there was at lest 10 different forms to fill out. What they bought mostly were businesses that were dwindling and couldn't stand on their own anymore, out of good will from Iruka. They had people who had expert knowledge in Business to pull them up and make them a functioning member of the SDI conglomerate. But oddly enough they didn't have enough people to do all of the paperwork involved.

"..." Gaara mentally kicked himself and turned up the music even louder, maybe if he just focused on the music...

After a few minutes of sitting there with out a random thought coming in to his mind, focusing on simply the music decidedly worked. Maybe now he could get back to his training.

Gaara closed his eyes and sat silently under the rushing waters, his mind completely set on the music pouring into his ears. Even with his mind distracted like this it was simple for him to control the sand, it rose from his gourd sitting safely on the side of the river, floating surrealy in the air like a cloud and raining into the water. Where it promptly diluted.

This is where the training aspect came in, sand wasn't nearly as effective in water, it couldn't even stay together. So that's what he worked on, keeping it together at lest, maybe if he was able to do that he could increase it's effectiveness, strengthen it.

! - ! - !

Iruka slowly opened the broad doors halfway and peeked into the library, he felt strangely guilty about doing this, embarrassed even. Most of all he felt nervous, so he looked around uneasily, making sure he didn't see anybody before he walked inside and shut the door behind him. "..." He shifted around in the black uniform, taking a deep breath, and willed himself to proceed.

'I never realized how many books Neji has...' Iruka looked through the rows of books he passed, watching them reel by him in a hypnotic blur. He had to wonder how resourceful one had to be to collect texts such as these, most of which were pretty rare, Neji didn't deal in the normal ones. Some of these weren't even written by humans.

'I wonder how he translated them?' He thought to himself as he came to the doors of Neji's study and knocked softly. Almost immediately afterwords Neji's voice prompted whoever was out there to come in, and Iruka reluctantly opened the door and slipped inside, closing it also behind him.

Neji sat at his desk, looking over an open scroll and copying something on to it from a book, a volume of the demon archive he used so frequently. A few feet away was Kiba who was sitting atop of Lee's safe with Akamaru mounted fatefully on his head. "..." Iruka rubbed his head nervously.

"Iruka-sensei?" Neji looked up from his task and glanced up at him questioningly. "Is something wrong?"

"No." Iruka shook his head and forced himself to speak, he really didn't want to ask Neji about this, that feeling was made even worse because Kiba was here also. "I have to ask you something."

"Ok."

Now how could he phrase this... "Well uh..." How could he phrase this without coming off too strangely? "What does it mean when sudden urges for...uh...blood come about?" He just barely managed to ramble nervously through that question.

"Uh..." Neji looked at him even more questioningly. "Is this pertaining to a demon?"

Iruka felt himself blushing and immediately looked away. "No...human."

"Well...I'm not completely sure." Neji gave a silently look to Kiba who only could shrug at the way the man was acting right now. "I'd need more details."

Details? How about he'd just licked a demon this morning? Would that help at all? What about the fact that he liked it, or the fact that he wanted to get at lest a taste of _any_ blood again and that thought had been plaguing him like an addiction all day. Iruka blushed even harder and shifted around nervously, that was the kinda thing he wanted to avoid saying. "Well... I have an assignment to go on." He said, and abruptly turned and bolted out of the door.

Leaving behind a completely confused Kiba and Neji. "What was that about?" Kiba watched the door where Iruka had just left.

"I don't know." Neji shrugged, dismissing it as stress he began refocusing on the thoughts he'd held before Iruka's intrusion.

Kiba did the same, his tail sweeping anxiously across the steel surface below him. "I guess it would ruin all of this work If we just broke this thing open now." He said, indicating the safe.

"I'm starting to seriously consider doing just that." Neji sighed, a frustration growing in his voice.

"Really?" Kiba lent down and pressed his nose against the steel door for the countless time, trying his best to detect what was inside, and failing again. "I really, really wanna see what's in there."

"No, don't." Neji shook his head.

"Come on, it's been almost 2 years!" Kiba winned, "Don't you want to know?"

"Of course I do." Neji sighed. He really did. He wanted to know what Lee would leave behind for him, why would he leave whatever it was for him in the first place? It was like all of his questions would be answer once they got inside of that safe, though realisticly he didn't know if anything would be answered. "But we're just going to have to wait."

"We deserve the right to break it open." Kiba said. "Those damn bugs didn't start coming after us until this safe was involved."

"Yes, that's true." Neji agreed. "But that doesn't mean we should break it open. We can still figure out the combination, we just have to think about it."

"Yeah, I guess." Kiba shrugged.

"The first number we found in the combination was Lee's lucky number, the second was on the back of Lee's gift, the third was the month of his birthday. So what would a fourth number be?"

"Geez, how does he pick these numbers?" Kiba folded his arms and closed his eyes, his sense of smell had gotten better, he could pick out things from long distances. But yet he couldn't pick out a thing past the scent of steel, that safe really was air tight. "And they're all single digit numbers? Seems random to me."

"Gai-sensei said that Lee was always systematical in the way he chooses these types of things." Neji sighed. "What was really important to Lee?"

! - ! - !

"Iruka."

Iruka flinched when he heard the sudden calling of his name, halting his nervous pacing around his room and quickly turning towards the door where Kakashi stood. "Kakashi? Don't sneak up on me like that."

Kakashi stood before him in much rougher state then he'd seen him last, covered in bruises and cuts from hours of fighting demons. "Sorry."

Iruka couldn't stop himself from staring at the other man almost in awe, he was immediately flooded with the scent of blood from the man's lacerations and his eyes focused on the sight of the crimson liquid. It was enticing beyond anything else, like he was deathly thirsty and standing before an oasis. Now it was all he could think off. "K-Kakashi..."

Kakashi tilted his head to the side questioningly and attempted to figure out why he was looking at him that way. "Iruka? Are you alright?"

"Uh..." Iruka relinquished what little control he had over himself and forced whatever speech he could render to come forth. "Yeah...It's nothing." A blush crept across his cheeks and he spoke almost in a daze where he would have normally spoke in nervous, stumbling words.

"What a day, somebody tried to screw us again, our client was a fake and it was a complete ambush." Kakashi said, a slight disappointment in his voice. "This is happening way too often."

"..." Iruka barely heard a word that had been said, he was so hungry...

"Iruka?" Kakashi waved a hand before Iruka's eyes and called his name again, he'd never seen him act like this. "What's with you?"

Iruka rested his hand on Kakashi's shoulder, his fingers grazing over an open cut sitting just behind a ripped part of Kakashi's shirt. Kakashi winced slightly from the agitation. "You should go get cleaned up, we... can talk about this later."

Kakashi was starting to get worried, Iruka seemed undeniably out of it. "Maybe you should get some rest Iruka, you've been working pretty late this week."

"Yeah, I am kinda tired I guess." Iruka lied, he wasn't tired at all. He was too hungry to even think about sleep, he just had to end this conversation before he jumped on Kakashi and did who knew what.

Kakashi seemed to except that answer, with out pressing Iruka's somewhat suspicious behavior, he heeded his words. Kakashi slipped his finger under the rim of his shirt and began pulling the black fabric off as he turned away and headed into the main hall, leaving Iruka behind to take a shower.

Iruka watched the man leave, his eyes fixed on the wounds on his back as Kakashi's form left his vision. Then with that oddly tempting distraction gone, he lifted his hand that he'd placed on Kakashi's shoulder before and stared at the blood covering his fingers. The sent had more arousing properties then it ever had before, he picked up something tempting and desirable found in nothing else.

'...' Iruka's eyes slowly fell closed and he ran his tongue over the appendages, savoring the taste he sought to have. It notably wasn't as good as Kakashi's doppelganger's had been...Why in the hell would he know what blood tasted better! Why did he like it so much in the first place! 'Oh man...' Iruka mentally sighed in a ominous manner, he still wanted more, he was hungry for more, and no amount of will power could deny that. Speaking of will, what happened to his? He'd just did that little act with out a second thought, as if it was natural.

Even as those thoughts ran through his mind he still licked his lips, searching for the last hint of that taste. "Where did this come from...what's wrong with me?"

! - ! - !

Konohamaru laid helplessly on his back atop the fire hardened ground now smoldering and over heated from the recent flames. Staring up at the blue Chakra wire connected to his metal kunai's stretching across a wide gap above him. "..."

"Don't feel too bad. " Naruto sat down beside him victoriously, "You did a pretty good job."

Konohamaru slipped his fingers under his goggles and rubbed his pounding head, though it wasn't meant that way, he felt like Naruto was mocking him. "I still lost." He pouted.

"No, you did great!" Naruto reassured him. He was surprised how well Konohamaru did. "I've never fought anyone who could make themselves stronger."He was referring to Konohamaru's skill of using his excessive amount of Chakra to strengthen his muscles.

It was a small consultation that Naruto thought so highly of him, actually it was a really big consultation. Konohamaru shifted his eyes upward at Naruto, then with a nagging thought in his mind he looked away reluctantly. "..."

Naruto looked down at him, noticing the way he couldn't seem to look in his eyes anymore. He had to be thinking about something. "Konohamaru?"

"Nee-chan." Konohamaru said reluctantly, keeping his eyes fixed away from him. "Thank you... for yesterday."

Naruto had attempted to make him feel better many times before, but this was the first time Konohamaru ever said anything about it the next day. "Oh...it was nothing." Naruto said, shifting his hands around awkwardly.

"Where did you learn all of those new jutsus?" Konohamaru changed the subject, "What's with all the fire."

"I like fire." Naruto announced proudly, he'd built up an immunity to fire through hard training and a series techniques he'd taken from Neji's demon books. Everyone had acquired at lest one demonic skill from those texts.

Except for Gaara and Konohamaru, Konohamaru had been fixed on creating his own jutsus, and had been diligently working to do so. With help from Itachi and Kisame of course, he'd developed a series of them, when one was created it was easy to make another variation like it. Konohamaru's tended to be large and flashy, which was why his developed jutsus were all explosive ones. "That was really cool!" Konohamaru said admiringly. "Can you teach it too me?"

"Nah, it's too dangerous."

"Come on!"

! - ! - !


	25. Chapter 25: Blood

Chapter 25: Blood

He didn't know what time when he woke up, it didn't matter, the time didn't interest him. Iruka stirred slightly under the warm covers and laid his head against Kakashi's back, who was laying peacefully asleep beside him. Iruka's eyes drifted open and just stared forward at the barely illuminated room, the only light was the rays of moonlight shining through the window.

Blank, completely blank.

Not a single thought found it's way into Iruka's mind, he simply stared into the moonlit darkness... His eyes rolled down from over Kakashi's shoulder and fixed themselves on the man, just staring at him for an undetermined amount of time.

Something finally came to his mind, it wasn't a thought though it resembled it at first glance. It was more of a feeling, a desire, an instinct, that he had to follow without any reasoning. Iruka closed his eyes, opening his mouth wide in a soft yawn and blinked, then continued to look into the traces of moonlight. The next time he opened his eyes there was a reddened tent to the brown orbs turning them a dirty burgundy. His mouth opened again, this time with out a yawn, and something new was there, long fangs that seem to simply appear.

Iruka leaned froward with his mouth wide, lowering toward the sleeping Kakashi's neck. But he stopped, elongated teeth hovering just above the awaiting flesh. He didn't move for a few seconds, his sleepy eyes still staring... Iruka took in a deep breath and a light appeared, a smoky blue aura surrounding Kakashi's body, his Chakra...

Iruka took another deep breath and the smoky light drew into his mouth, he gained some undefined substance from it, things that were never there for him before. The taste was unlike anything he'd ever had, indescribably amazing. Iruka's sleepy eyes grew slightly more awake as he took another breath and sucked in more of Kakashi's Chakra, it filled him in ways he couldn't explain, it was a different type of hunger.

Kakashi began to shift slightly, a low moan making it's way out of his mouth, a discomfort started to rise up in him.

It wasn't until Kakashi's moans started to grow louder did Iruka snap out of it, his eyes quickly shifting back to their normal brown and his mind forcing itself awake. "!" Fully of aware of what he had just done. ' W-What was that! What did I just do!' Iruka stumblingly threw the sheets off of himself and rolled out of the bed, he had to get away, he had to get away from Kakashi! He ended up falling disorientedly to the ground with a soft crash.

And he laid there, his mind racing, his body taking gasping, panicked breaths.

He could still taste it, traces of it still lingered in his mouth, and he wanted more. Iruka licked his lips nervously and clinched his eyes shut tightly, 'What's happening to me...What's wrong with me...why do I...' Iruka held his arms and curled into a half ball, staring at the wall with trembling eyes. 'What's happening to me! Why am I doing this!' What was more frustratingly confusing was that he still wanted more, he really wanted more! He wanted more blood, he wanted more Chakra, it was like food and water, he had to have more... 'No...No, no, no, no,no!'

He wanted it, he needed them both. What if he could have both at the same time? That would be amazing... 'No! No! NO! NO!'

! - ! - !

Kakashi opened his eyes, stirred into consciousness from the previous discomfort of having his Chakra absorbed. "?" Kakashi rolled over when he didn't feel the familiar warmth of a close body, only to find Iruka wasn't there. "Iruka?"...He didn't get a response. Thinking nothing of it, Kakashi closed his eyes and rolled over again, allowing himself to start drifting off to sleep.

Kakashi opened his eyes again and rolled over for the second time, he heard something... Kakashi pushed himself up and leaned over the opposite side of the bed toward the source of the sound of heavy breathing. "Iruka?" He found the other man laying on the ground, staring almost fearfully at the wall, in a fetal position, shaking.

"..." Iruka didn't respond, his just continued his harsh breaths and lay trembling where he was..

"Iruka! What's wrong." Kakashi pushed the covers off of himself and climbed out of the bed, he was met with a small chill being dressed in nothing but his boxers. Kakashi knelt down in to the shadowy area beside the bed and rested his hand on Iruka's shoulder, That small chill Kakashi felt must have been even worse for Iruka because he was freezing. "Iruka...Iruka say something."

The other man didn't even seem to hear him, his heavy breathes didn't lose their desperate rhythm for a second and he didn't move an inch beside the trembling.

"Iruka what's wrong with you." Kakashi didn't know what to do, he didn't know what to make of this? He leaned over Iruka just enough to see his face, when he looked into his eyes he determined the man was most decidedly awake. He was cold, maybe he just needed to warm him up, yeah, warm him up and see if that helped before he started to worry.

"Alright Iruka, come on..." Kakashi slipped his arms around the man's body and picked him up. But he didn't get Iruka two inches off the ground before he heard a startled gasp from the man and he began struggling with out a word. "Iruka?" Kakashi lost his grip and dropped the man back down to the ground.

Something was really wrong.

"Iruka, talk to me." Kakashi tried to pry the man out of his curled up position, but Iruka wouldn't budge and resisted all the way. After a few seconds Kakashi was forced to give up, Iruka was a grown man who's occupation was a demon hunter, Kakashi wouldn't be able to move him if he didn't want to be moved. "Iruka what's the matter? Say something...anything."

Iruka didn't say anything.

Kakashi didn't know what to do, Iruka wouldn't be moved, but yet he was laying here cold and trembling with a terrified look in his eyes. "Please...just say one word, just let me know what's wrong..."

He got no response.

Then he'd just have to take matters into his own hands.

Kakashi climbed over the man and grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him with all of his strength to roll on to his back. "Come on Iruka! Get up! Say something!"

Iruka's trembling doubled and he began trashing around violently, the look of fear still heavy in his eyes.

"Come on Iruka! Tell me what's wrong! Say something." Kakashi pushed even harder, struggling to keep the man pinned. "Tell me what's wrong! Let me help you..."

"...N-no, No!" Iruka forced out of his mouth, he slipped his hands on to Kakashi's waist and pushed the man off. Quickly curling defensively up in the same fetial with the same heavy breaths, trembling and fearful look.

Kakashi stared up at the shadow shrouded ceiling and just laid there for a moment, completely stunned. It was quiet again, it seemed fitting for the darkness. What time was it? It had to be about 3 in the morning, it looked that late...

"Iruka..." Well, he asked him to say something, to do something, that was most definitely something. Kakashi sat up right and folded his arms, looking at the man with discontent. "I don't know what's wrong and I don't know why you wont tell me..."

Kakashi laid down beside Iruka and wrapped his arms around the man, pressing his chest against his back and resting his chin on Iruka's shoulder. "But I'll wait until your ready."

His new position didn't seem to have any effect on the trembling and fearful Iruka, but he didn't push him away...

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Naruto peaked into the door as the rays of sun filled the room with bright gold, looking around questioningly. "Iruka... Kakashi...Is anybody in here?" Not seeing anybody from where he was, Naruto slipped into Iruka's room and looked for himself. All he found was a messy bed. "Did Iruka leave already? Geez, he could have woke me up."

With a sigh of disappointment Naruto dropped his head and walked towards the door. '?' But when he heard the sounds of soft groans and even softer breaths, Naruto stopped. "Huh?" He walked quickly back to the messy bed and looked over the other side, and saw Iruka curled in the fetal position with Kakashi's arms wrapped around him and his chest pressed against the other man's back. "Hey, get up." Naruto called out with annoyment. 'Since when do I get up before Iruka? This must be Kakashi's fault!'

Kakashi peeped one sleepy eye opened and glanced curiously at Naruto, then when he realized he wasn't dreaming it Kakashi lifted his head slightly. "Shhh..."

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head to the side questioning, speaking in a much lower tone. "Why are you guys still asleep, Iruka and me have to go-"

"Go get Neji." Kakashi commanded sleepily.

"Why, It's 7 in the morning?" Naruto asked.

"Just do it, I think there's something wrong with Iruka." He whispered.

"Something's wrong with Iruka?" Naruto knelt down worriedly. "What is it?"

"I don't know, go find Neji!"

"Alright."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"What do you mean?" Neji asked, he sat on the edge of the bed beside Naruto and a now awake Gaara.

Kakashi sat up and crossed his arms, his eyes focused on Iruka sitting beside him. "I don't know what's the problem. I woke up last night and I found him on the ground, he was shaking and he looked afraid or something like that. He wouldn't talk to me at all until I finally tred to move him and he wouldn't let me."

Naruto folded his arms and looked down thoughtfully. "Sounds like something freaked him out."

"But what could have done this to him without me noticing?" Kakashi said, speaking mainly to himself. "I was right next to him."

"Whatever it is." Neji said. "He doesn't seem to want to tell you, maybe if one of us tried asking him he'd respond better."

"I guess." Kakashi nodded reluctantly, maybe that would work, he didn't know exactly what the problem was but maybe someone else could help.

Neji looked over at Naruto and Gaara, then an expression of small remembrance came to his face and he looked over his shoulder at Kakashi."Maybe you should leave for a while."

Why not, Iruka didn't want to talk to him anyway. "Fine." With one last, worried glance at Iruka, Kakashi stood to his feet and headed for the door, sure to pick up his uniform on the way out.

"Alright, which one of us is going to wake him up?" Neji asked.

Naruto and Gaara looked at each other, and then at Neji. A few seconds of thought followed, before Gaara surprisingly was the first one to speak. "I will."

"Really, You?" Naruto asked, obviously surprised at Gaara volunteering for something like this. "Why?"

"I wanna help." He stated simply, speaking in his normal way as if there was nothing else too it. Giving all the explanation he would, Gaara pushed himself off of the bed and moved in front of the sleeping Iruka. He watched for a moment, studying his features, Iruka looked...oddly at peace for what Kakashi described. With a strong curiosity driving him to stop stalling, Gaara laid his hand on Iruka's shoulder and shook him lightly at first, when he got no response the first few seconds he began shaking the man even harder.

That seemed to awaken him this time, Iruka's eyes slowly drifted open, half lidded orbs focused themselves on Gaara like a child who wasn't quite awake enough to understand anything around him. He didn't say anything.

"Iruka." Gaara stared at the man, waiting for some type of response that never came. "Iruka is something wrong?" He asked, but still Iruka only stared at him. "I don't think he'll talk to us,"

Neji and Naruto both looked away and sighed. "Naruto, how about you give it a try." Neji suggested.

Naruto stood up and rubbed his head sleepily. "I'll give it my best--" He stopped mid-sentence, himself and everyone else in the room froze with a tense stillness when they heard Iruka began panting and saw his body start to shake with growing intensity. "I-Iruka!"

With a flutter of blurry, speeding movements, Naruto and Neji joined Gaara's side above Iruka. "What's wrong with him?" A audible tent of worry was heard in his monotone voice as he backed away so he wouldn't obstruct Neji. He really started to become worried when he saw the horrified look growing in his eyes, as if he'd just seen something he shouldn't have.

Neji, from Kakashi's descriptions, didn't waste time trying to straitened Iruka's body out, he examined the man as best he could in his current position. First he checked his pulse, then his breathing then a few other things neither Gaara nor Naruto knew what purpose served. "He's going into shock..."

"What?" Naruto asked. "How, Why?"

"I-I don't know." Neji said, looking around in a half frantic manner as if he'd find some type of answer nearby. "Come on, we need to get him off the ground right now." Neji instructed, slipping his arms under Iruka's waist. Gaara nodded obediently and grabbed his shoulders, but when they tried to lift him up they encountered the same resistance Kakashi had.

"N-No, No!" Iruka suddenly came to life, prying all of them off of him with a few sharp squirms and jerks, falling back on to his place in the ground. If Kakashi couldn't even do it, they didn't have a chance.

"I thought you said he was in shock?" Gaara asked with growing confusion.

"He...He is...?" Neji nodded as if trying to be sure of himself, "His vitals are out of control, and he's having involuntary muscle spasms... I don't understand this." Now he was completely stumped, what was this?

"Iruka come on, You have to tell us what's wrong. " Naruto nearly shouted. "Come on, say something!"

"It's no use." Kakashi, who'd made his way back inside with out anyone noticing, knelt down behind Naruto. "I've been trying that for hours, if it hasn't worked by now it wont."

"Maybe it's a panic attack or something like that?" Naruto suggested.

"With trembling...I don't know..." Neji wasn't sure of that, but it didn't seem likely.

"So what do we do?" Naruto asked. "He won't let us move him."

"I don't know..." Kakashi sighed, it was time for them to start looking at other options. "Neji, go see what you can dig up about this, maybe it's something we haven't thought of."

"Alright." Neji gave a small nod and left the room with hasty steps.

"I'll help." Naruto announced. He had some experience with researching in Neji's library from when he was trying to figure out what was wrong with Gaara, enough to at lest help a little.

That only left Gaara, who didn't have a task. "What...What do I do?"

Kakashi lifted his eyes from Iruka and glanced curiously at the boy, he seemed to be taking quite an interest. "Stay with him." Kakashi told him, heading towards the door himself.

That left just an struggling Iruka and an inexperienced Gaara.

He really didn't know what to do.

"Iruka." With a small look around, wondering if someone would come back, Gaara finally sat down beside the trembling man. "I've never seen anything like this, I wish I knew what was wrong with you." What he was saying sounded odd in his monotone voice, there was no emotion where their should have been, it sounded like he didn't care at all.

He did, a lot. Inside there was this sinking feeling in stomach, a feeling of worrying that he'd never experienced before. It filled him with an energy, an anxious energy that made him wanted to get up and move around, that made him want to do something, anything if it would help. He'd never felt this way for himself, he never even felt this feeling for Naruto.

"Why don't you say something?" Gaara asked. "It would be a lot easier for us to help if you told us what was wrong." Gaara leaned froward enough to bring himself eye to eye to Iruka, when he saw fearful that look in his face his expression visibly dropped some. It was like Iruka was looking strait through him, afraid of something only he could see. "Iruka...what happened to you."

The only response he gained was more trembling breaths.

Gaara closed his eyes and sighed, he hated seeing Iruka like this. Iruka was so nice, and helpful and parent like. Iruka always took the time to tell him or teach him anything he wanted to know, he had a faith, a sight of something in Gaara that no one else had. Iruka was like no one else he'd ever met, and he was more thankful then he could describe for him man.

The last thing he wanted to see was him like this.

"You don't have to tell me what happened or anything like that." Gaara seemed to change his mind about his previous words. "Just tell me what I can do to help." He said, that was all he wanted to do.

"..."

Gaara pressed his fingers underneath Iruka's chin and checked his pulse, his heart was racing. "Iruka..." Gaara couldn't seem to draw himself away from his eyes, he'd seen that expression, that look of fear that intense. Sure he'd seen it, in most of the people he'd ever killed, just before they died. The last thing he wanted see was that look in his eyes. "Say something at lest, do you even see me?"

Iruka's trembling began to decrease until it was almost non-exsistant and the look of total fear in his eyes eased a bit. All that remained was that confused child-like look staring back at the boy.

"Iruka?" Gaara of course took notice of this.change.

"..." He still didn't speak.

But maybe he wanted to say something. So Gaara stayed there and watched the man silently.

It continued like this for a few moments. Neither one of them said anything.

"..." Iruka's expression became needy, more and more as if he wanted to say something that never came out.

So Gaara waited, and he would however long it took.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"You think that's it?" Naruto turned around and pushed open the library doors with his back, holding two large, open books in his hands. "Do you think any of these are it?"

Neji walked through the held open door with 3 more open books stacked on top off each other, and as soon as he reached the stairs in the hallway he broke into a full sprint. "I hope so..." Neji, with a lack of free hands, not so lightly kicked open the door to the main hall.

"Ow."

And ended up hitting a sleepy Kiba in the face.

"?" Neji walked past the door and after Naruto passed through he kicked it shut and found Kiba, now fully awake, clinching his nose tightly. "Kiba? Oh sorry, I was in a hurry."

"For what? What's going on around here?" Kiba shifted around the black shirt of his sparsely thrown on uniform and his dyed black jacket.

"It's Iruka." Neji called back as he ran down the long hall towards Iruka's room.

"Iruka?" Kiba didn't expect to wake up to this. Weren't Iruka and Naruto supposed to be on assignment? What happened? Did Iruka get hurt? Bad enough to get Neji and Naruto worried to this level.

Kiba looked up at Akamaru mounted faithfully on his head. "Wanna go check it out?" He asked, He got an affirming bark.

! - ! - !

Kiba pushed the door to the familiar room open and peaked in side, he found Kakashi, Neji and Naruto all crowded around Iruka's bed. 'What's going on around here?'

"What did you find?" Kakashi asked.

"Well." Neji looked down at the book, scanning over the pages. "I found too many entries for too many different problems to give you an answer. But in some of the demon texts I found some things with Iruka's symptoms exactly. Losey translated, blood tainting."

"Blood tainting? Is that like blood poisoning?" Kakashi asked.

"It could be, but I haven't seen any other symptoms of it. Blood tainting looks a lot more plausible."

Kiba, after listening for a moment, walked into the room and closed the door behind him. "You said something was wrong with Iruka, is that it?"

"Most likely." Neji nodded.

Kiba slipped past Neji and Kakashi, finally gaining his first look at Iruka. Gaara was still there, crouched in front of a still curled up Iruka who was still there, no longer shaking. Both of them were just staring at each other, Iruka looked almost like a reluctant child and Gaara held his usual expression. Interesting.

"You said that diagnosis came from demon text." Kakashi said thoughtfully. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Neji nodded. "Yeah, it's an affliction from a demon."

"Whoa, wait a minute." Kiba looked back at Neji. "Did you say demon? A demon did ...whatever it is it did to him?"

"Looks that way."

Kiba looked back at Iruka suspiciously.

Kakashi was attempting to understand this. "How...How could a demon do this with out me knowing? I was right there..."

Kiba knelt down above Iruka and sniffed him lightly. "He smells different."

"Like what?" Neji asked.

"I don't know, just something different about it." Kiba couldn't describe it, he couldn't compare it to anything since he'd never encounter anything else resembling it.

Iruka's calm eyes suddenly widened with the same look of fear and the trembling started again, his breath becoming heavy and tattered, seemingly with out reason. "Iruka?" Gaara sat upright and looked up questioningly at everyone else. Why did he suddenly start acting like this again? He was doing so well. "What's wrong?"

Kakashi knelt over the man worriedly, "He seems worse...Neji, is there any mention of how to treat this?"

"It all depends on the type of blood tainting he's been exposed too." Neji replied disappointedly. "Every treatment is different."

"So how do we figure that out?"

"There really isn't away a way to tell, beside catching the demon that did it."

"Can we just do them all, one has to work."

"These...aren't the kind of treatments you really want to do one of, let alone all of them."

Then there was no time to waste. Kakashi stood up decidedly, "Alright then, go wake up Sasuke and Konohamaru, spread out and search the area." He told them. "A lot of time has passed so search wide and move quickly."

With an affirming nod or action, everyone disbursed, going their separate ways, and leaving behind Kakashi and Iruka.

'...' Kakashi knelt again over Iruka lent down enough to looked the man in the eyes. "I have to leave for a while...I'm sorry, but I'll be back as soon as I can." He promised. "I don't know what's wrong with you, I don't even know if you can understand me or not. But please try to fight this..." With a sigh to himself and a strong reluctance, Kakashi got up and ran towards the door.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The area behind the SDI Building was nothing more then open wide open fields filled with short grass, a few scattered trees and sparce flowers. It was nearly impossible to hide in a place like this, and after running through it for 30 minutes strait Naruto was sure that there was no way he'd find anything. 'Oh man...'

Naruto's pace slowed to a halt and he bent over, trying to catch his breath. This was looking more and more futile by the moment. '...' With one deep inhale, Naruto stood up strait and looked to his left towards the source of displaced air he'd felt. "Gaara?"

In his usual quiet fashion Gaara appeared beside Naruto from some other facet of the search. "Did you find anything?" Gaara asked.

"No...what about you?" Naruto asked with a small hope.

"No." Gaara shook his head disappointedly. "I don't think we're going to find this thing."

"Me neither." Naruto unfortunately had to agree, whatever it was, it was either gone, or in another direction, they hoped their other team mates had better luck. "Maybe we should go back and see if anybody else found anything."

"I agree." Gaara said, with both of them harboring the same opinion Gaara didn't hesitate to turn around and start walking back. "I don't think we should have left Iruka alone..."

Naruto rested his hands behind his head with a tired sigh, "Maybe we shouldn't have. Think some thing might happen to him? Like that demon will come back."

"Not really." Gaara was more worried about what had already happened to him then what might now. "If we don't find this demon...what do you think will happen?"

"I don't know. I don't even wanna think about it."

Naruto was right, it was stupid of him to even ask something like that, of corse the end result was death, or else Kakashi wouldn't be as avid about it as he was. Gaara let his eyes fall to the ground and he stared down at the short strands of grass he passed over with each step, that sinking feeling he had in the pit of his stomach grew worse.

"Worried?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah." Gaara nodded.

"I'm sure we'll find some way." Naruto reassured him. "Iruka's really strong, he'll pull through."

"I don't want him to die." Gaara didn't seem to take as much comfort in Naruto's words as Naruto had hoped.

"Don't worry." Naruto laid his hand on Gaara shoulder consolingly. "He'll be alright, he always is."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

By the time Naruto and Gaara returned, almost everyone had done the same. Naruto looked around the lobby on entrance, Kiba was back, as well as Sasuke, Konohamaru and Neji. Kakashi was unaccounted for. "Did you guys find anything?"

"Nope." Konohamaru shook his head. "Whatever it was we're not gonna find it. We don't know where to look. Or what to look for."

"Kiba, you didn't pick up any strange scents in Iruka's room?" Sasuke asked.

"Nah, not a thing." Kiba said suspiciously, "That's really strange, how could it not leave a scent?"

"Maybe your nose is off." Naruto suggested.

"I can smell the demon you fought on you yesterday, my nose is _not _off." Kiba growled. "The only way that could happen is if it was a poltergeist demon, a ghost or something, or there wasn't a demon in there last night."

"Those types of demons couldn't cause this." Neji corrected.

Which could only mean the later of the two choices was the right one. "Wait, so if a demon didn't come in and do this to him, what's wrong with him?" Konohamaru asked.

"No, he most definitely has blood-tainting." Neji said with a certainty. "But...it must have happened earlier and had a delayed effect or something like that... I don't know, this isn't making sense anymore." Neji lifted his hand to his chin and a thoughtful expression came to his face, after a few seconds of silent contemplation he decided he couldn't get this on his own. "I'm going back upstairs to do more research, see what I can find out."

"I'll help." Naruto volunteered again, following Neji into the main hall.

It became quiet again after Neji and Naruto left, leaving Kiba, Konohamaru, Sasuke, and Gaara to wait.

Finally Gaara was the one to realize something. "Someone should tell Kakashi all of this, is he here."

"Yeah." Konohamaru nodded. "He's with Iruka."

Gaara set the gourd on his back down beside the door and left the lobby.

! - ! - !

He walked down the usual length of the main hall, wondering if Iruka had gotten any worse. Gaara wondered even more so what other symptoms he'd have if he indeed had gotten worse. Just the thought of it made that worried sinking feeling grow worse. 'Iruka...'

Gaara paused and looked over his shoulder suspiciously, it was no surprise when he found nothing.

With out a word he continued until he reached Iruka's room.

! - ! - !

Gaara opened the door and took a quick look around, the first person he saw was Kakashi. Sitting on the side of the bed, from his position he looked as if Iruka hadn't moved.

Kakashi took an acknowledging look back before turning his eyes back to Iruka. "Didn't find anything?"

"Nothing." Gaara folded his arm, standing over Iruka with a small sigh, Whatever condition Iruka was in didn't seem to have changed at all. "Kiba couldn't find a scent in here, there wasn't a demon." He announced blatantly.

"What?"

"Naruto and Neji went back up stairs to look for some information on a delayed effect, there was no way a demon could have gotten in and did something to Iruka with out you noticing."

That detail Kakashi couldn't seem to comprehend suddenly became so clear, "But if it didn't happen last night..."

"He was acting strangely yesterday also." Gaara pointed out. "Didn't you notice something off about him?"

"Well...he did seem...paranoid." Kakashi recounted, he thought it was just himself though, if everyone else noticed it too... "So you think this happened yesterday?"

"Possibly." Gaara said...

Kakashi noticed it, he immediately saw it on Gaara's face as soon as it appeared. "What is it?"

"There's something out in the hallway. You should go check it out."

Kakashi lifted his head uneasily, it was something in the way Gaara said it, the boy was sure of his claim. "Fine." With out hesitation he stood to his feet and left Iruka behind, walking into the main hall with quick steps. Sure to shut the door behind him. "..."

He looked around the wide corridor, staring outward through the rows of doors... '?' And of just like Gaara he didn't see anything...but still, there was this nagging feeling that something was off here.

"Do you think it is the demon that did this to him?" Gaara asked.

'I can only hope.' "Possibly." Kakashi pulled down his mask enough to reveal his Sharingan eye, maybe if he used it then he could find- "!" Kakashi quickly pivoted around with a Kunai drawn, and ended up seeing the one, worst demon he could possibly see right now. Iruka's Devil. "You..."

Seemingly out of out nowhere it appeared, the tall, red, strong, muscled body stood before him. The same pair of ivory horns protruding from it's head, same strong tail wiping around behind it's body, a pair of black wings drawn in at it's back, and most notably where those brown eyes, Iruka's brown eyes. "Iruka..." The deep, demonic voice called out, brown eyes shifting around in search. He could feel the man, he could feel _it_, something was happening to him.

"You did this to him!" Kakashi shouted accusingly, he stood before the demon defensively, blocking Iruka's door. His first instinct was to attack, to try and kill it now, only he knew he couldn't do it with out hurting Iruka. How were they suppose to fight against this thing? Iruka was the only one who could.

"Iruka...He's there." The demon realized, staring at the wall beside the door Kakashi blocked. He was in there! "Get out of my way."

"What did you do to him?" Kakashi yelled. This was the only demon around, it had to be this one that did it. It made sense, this one was obsessed with Iruka, and seemed to enjoy hurting him.

But truthfully it didn't know what Kakashi was talking about, it didn't care anyway. It didn't care about anything Kakashi said, or anyone else, it just wanted Iruka and nothing more. "Move!" The devil charged froward and grabbed Kakashi by the shoulders, digging it's claws into him and picking the man easily off of the ground.

Kakashi remorsefully sent a hard kick into demon's chest and pried it off of him, landing on the ground and taking a step back defensively. Gaara came to his side, he didn't have his sand with him but he still could be useful, he didn't know how useful with out hurting this demon he could be but... "If we hurt it we hurt Iruka right?" Gaara asked, "So we have to restrain it?"

"That's right." Kakashi reached into his back pocket and drew out a long, nearly invisible steel wire, with quick movements he tired it firmly around the Kunai. The devil came at him again with quick movements, crouching slight just enough to press his hands against Gaara's chest before he could evade. "Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" A burst of razor sharp air burst forward into Gaara, throwing the boy backwards with rush of blood and ripped clothing.

Kakashi sent a sharp kick into the demon's legs in an attempt to trip it up, but the devil easily stepped to the side and sent a sharp punch in to Kakashi's stomach. Kakashi jumped backwards out of range and quickly tossed the Kunai at the Devil, who easily tilted his head to the side and evaded it. "Get out of my way!"

Kakashi gave the reeling wire a gentle tug and it veered to the left, wrapping itself around the devil and then embedding itself into the wall directly behind. With with a blur of quick movements Kakashi tossed more and more of the wire bound Kunai's at the demon until it was bound to the wall. "Shut up and be still."

The loud noises seemed to alert everyone else, because Kiba, Sasuke and Konohamaru came rushing into the hall with a hurried clatter. "Holy crap!" Konohamaru came to quick stop behind Kakashi. "What is that thing?"

Sasuke however recognized it. "Is that-"

"Yeah." Kakashi nodded. "That's just what you think it is."

Gaara finally came from behind after seriously contemplating going back for his gourd. But by then Kakashi had it trapped so he saw no need. "What do we do with it."

Sasuke wasn't clear on it either, but he was more decisive. "Kiba, go get Neji."

With out hesitation Kiba turned and ran towards the stairs. "Right."

"Iruka..." The bound demon didn't struggle at all, it seemed oddly reserved, which could only mean something was off. "He's mine, you can't keep him from me!" The Devil shouted, it stretched it's wings outward and breaking through the wires without hesitation. But surprisingly he stopped.

'?' Kakashi looked questioningly at the demon, then at the door behind him when he heard the familiar sound of it opening. He didn't have time to think too deeply about it. The Devil when on the attack again, intent on get them out of the way.

"Retsu ha geki Ninpo!" The black wings on it's back began flapping quickly and a formidable current of tearing winds that came so suddenly and unexpectantly that everyone was swept off of their feet. Kakashi was the only one who managed to stay standing, crossing his arms over his face to block his head while the current tore at his clothing and the skin that lay beneath.

!

The air abruptly ceased, and Kakashi lifted his head. He surprised, to say the least, to see Iruka standing in front of him, still in nothing more then his boxers as he'd been for the past few hours, and had managed to throw one of Kakashi's discarded blades into the demon's left shoulder. With his mastery of wind based Jutsu he could easily break a current. "Iruka? What are you doing out here?" Wait, that wasn't the question he wanted to ask. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Iruka looked back at him with more steady eyes, "I...I..." He still couldn't seem to form an answer. It was as if his mind was completely muddled, and it became even worse when he tried to speak. He could barely stop himself from trembling, he couldn't even stand still, but something. The Devil's presence maybe, seemed to give him enough strength to take some action.

It was the opposite for the demon, something about Iruka's weakness seemed to effect him, if it could be blamed on anything it was the strange connection they had. "Iruka." The Devil sounded throughly satisfied when he saw him. He could see something different about Iruka, he could feel something in his taking place, weakening him. "You feel...strange." He said with a questioning in his voice.

Iruka didn't try to speak, he didn't hesitate to charge froward and throw a hard punch at the Devil almost instinctively. And everyone could do nothing more then stand back and watch. While the demon was stunned by the blow, Iruka thrust the kunai into it's stomach, immediately covering the knife and his fingers in it's blood. He quickly drew the blade out and thrust it at the demon again, by the demon caught him by the wrist and with demonic strength lifted the shorter man in the air by the hand holding the knife and then sent a hard kick into his stomach.

"!" Iruka was sent flying through the narrow hallway and into the wall opposing his bedroom door, sliding limply to the floor. Everyone visibly tensed.

The Devil, though weaker then normal was still considerably strong, stronger then Iruka could handle in his weakened state. "Iruka." The familiar demonic voice called out, the name felt strangely right in his mouth. Before he could reach the fallen man, Kakashi came seeming out of nowhere with his usual speed, grabbing the Devil by it's waist and pushing roughly off of it's feet.

The demon landed on the ground hard, and promptly kicked Kakashi off, knocking the man into the ceiling and watching him fall painfully to the ground. "Damnit."

"Kakashi what do we do?" Naruto asked in confusion, he really wanted to fight, but Iruka didn't look like he could take anymore hits.

"Just...Just wait." Kakashi grunted.

Iruka rubbed his head slightly, his breathing still heavy as he dropped the knife and stumbled to his feet. With his back turned to his friends he lifted his fingers to his mouth subconsciously and licked the blood that had spilled there, unseen by everyone else. He'd hate to admit it if he was thinking right but this blood tasted...even better then Kakashi's doppelganger. It was amazing, it even made him feel a little better.

He was so busy thinking about it that he didn't realize where the Devil was until he felt two strong arms wrap around him and pull him against the demon's chest. Where he desperately began struggling, but he wasn't nearly strong enough to get out of the immobilizing embrace.

"Iruka!" When Naruto saw that he had to take action, along with everyone else, they bolted towards the demon.

"Retsu ha geki Ninpo!" They didn't reach him, the Devil stretched those large black wings and began flapping, hard. They were struck with a hard burst of air that came on so strong and suddenly that not one of them could stand against it. The walls were stripped by the blade like streams that pushed them back and tore at them.

"N-No...No!" Iruka managed to force out, but the demon only smiled before burying his face into Iruka's neck and sinking his teeth into the delicate flesh. Lights appeared around them both, the light blue aura of Iruka's Chakra surrounded them and the bluish-green of the demons. The blue light began to siphon into the Devil as well as Iruka's blood, and already it started to feel stronger.

Iruka struggled weakly, but with each passing second he lost more and more strength into his attempts at breaking free were completely futile. When he knew Iruka was completely immobilized, that's when the Devil pulled back, though just enough to speak. "You taste even better the before." He spoke softly, though just enough to be heard over the sound of his beating wings dispersing increasingly strengthening winds. "Your changing... I feel it."

Iruka could only look up at him with the same trembling eyes that shook with fear.

"I wonder how good you'll taste after it's done... I can't wait." He couldn't, just like he couldn't wait for every time Iruka got stronger. Because after words he tasted even better and held more substance, it even felt better, and he'd get even more strength. He couldn't resist. The devil sunk his teeth back into Iruka, drinking more of the blood that spilled from the wound, it's increasingly diluted bluish green Chakra began pushing into Iruka this time.

"Uh...Uhhaa..." Iruka grimaced, softly letting out weak cries of pain. His body began convulsing so strongly that he couldn't move at all anymore, and his mind drew a complete blank. "Uhhhaaaaaaaaa!" Finally he screamed in pain, and just as suddenly as if had been drained from him, strength returned to his body like a flood, more then enough to steady his trembling.

Iruka pried himself free with a sharp push outward and stumbled backwards disorientedly, blood streaming freely down from his shoulder over his back and chest. Everything around him spun around in a disorient blur, his head felt like it was spinning just as fast and he staggered dizzily into the wall. Even through all of that his mind was blank, leaving the most primal instinct. And was simply to feed his hunger for blood.

Brown eyes turned Burgundy and fangs grew in his mouth, a low, almost hissing growl forcing it's way from his throat.

"I-Iruka?" Kakashi, finally free of the repelling winds, looked over the man cautiously before attempting to approach.

Calling out his name was about to become a mistake for Kakashi, since he really couldn't see anything from the dizziness, all Iruka had to go on was sound and the smell of blood, which was all over Kakashi after having been ripped at by the last attack. Iruka growled fiercely with that same hissing like sound and lunged forward towards Kakashi . His movements were unusually and unexpectantly quick, Kakashi didn't see it coming until Iruka was on top of him, pinning him against the wall. "I-Iruka?"

The Devil's intent usually would have been Iruka, but at the moment it had something it had no choice but to focus on. It was in the middle of mutating.

! - ! - !


	26. Chapter 26: Silence

Chapter 26: Silence

"Iruka!" Kakashi shouted in a startled yelp. He found himself pinned against the wall, two hands holding his arms awkwardly against the vertical surface and one firm knee pinned directly between his legs. This sudden strength was amazing, Kakashi found himself almost at Iruka's mercy, they were nearly equal now, or at lest close enough to look that way.

"Iruka! What's wrong with you!" Kakashi pushed against him as hard as he could, and Iruka did the same. Kakashi could feel Iruka's strength wavering a bit, he was still subtilty stronger and removing Iruka's leverage slowly, painfully slow. He found himself staring fearfully into those darker eyes, at the complete look of wildness or madness on the other man's face, and those fangs.

Iruka, who was easily strong enough to hold Kakashi there for at lest a little while, let out another hiss like growl and leaned forward towards Kakashi's neck with mouth wide. Kakashi flinched when he felt the fangs grazing his neck and the small, cool suction of Iruka pulling in a deep breath. Seemingly removing some unknown veil from the man with that small action, a smoky aura of light surrounded Kakashi, his Chakra.

And as soon as he saw it Kakashi realized what was happening 'He's gonna...I'm sorry Iruka.' Kakashi thrust his head forward painfully into Iruka, mentally wincing when he heard the sound of the black metal of his SDI inscribed forehead protector pounding into the other man.

Iruka reeled back slightly in pain, the beginnings of blood forming from the point of impact, then with a odd hiss that sounded like dispelling air and buckling steel, Iruka practically dived at Kakashi's neck. "!"

"Iruka!" Naruto came from out of nowhere, diving into Iruka's side and knocking the man painfully off balance. They both came crashing to the ground, Naruto landing atop the unexpectant Iruka. The blow only served to increase the severity of Iruka's dizziness, it became so bad that the man couldn't find the orientation to even sit up. "What's wrong with you Iruka!"

Kakashi pushed himself uneasily off the wall, looking down at Iruka who everyone was gathering around or in front of defensively. His eyes inanely drifted up to the Devil who stumbled backwards against the adjacent wall, clinching it's head tightly.

It moaned in pain, keeling over with clinched eyes. Slowly but surely the ivory horns atop it's head grew longer, curving backwards over it's head to just barely past the ears. It's already formidable muscles didn't grow mass as last time, but grew more tone, more definition, more density, subtilty increasing it's strength substantially. More surprisingly, short brown hair spawned atop it's, the same tone, the same color, exactly like Iruka's, it was Iruka's. Inside of it's mouth fangs grew, about to the length of Iruka's, extending just over it's bottom lip.

The Devil's wings fell open and the black feathers began to fall away, new, longer ones grew in their place. Nearly falling, the Devil flapped it's wings and lifted into the air, disorientedly bursting through the ceiling.

"Should we try to catch it?" Sasuke ran underneath the newly created hole, lifting his arm over his forehead to block his face from falling debris as he peered upward. He could see the sky.

"We have more important things to think about!" Naruto finally lifted himself off Iruka, taking a step back as he watched the man clinch his head and roll to his side almost nauseously. "What's happening to him?"

"I don't know." Kakashi knelt down beside the man and planted his hands on Iruka's shoulder, then he forcefully pushed Iruka on to his back. "Iruka, Iruka!" Kakashi struggled to hold him still and keep him on his back. 'Iruka...' Kakashi climbed on his knees over Iruka, staring down at him. He saw the fierce look, the aggressiveness in Iruka's face faded into the surprised, fearful expression he'd before, only it was more intense. Iruka's body began trembling beneath Kakashi, the burgandy, blood tented eyes wide and shaking, his breathing became little more then a desperate gasps. And Kakashi could feel his heart pounding though his pulse no matter where he touched him.

"What? What is it?" Konohamaru saw the fearful expression on Iruka's face and began looking around, he didn't see anything to be afraid of. "What are you so afraid of?"

"It's no use asking." Gaara shook his head, standing above Kakashi a completely dishartened. "He won't say anything."

Iruka's shaking body began to grow limp and his trembling eyes slowly drifted close, the dizziness finally became overwhelming, the nauseous stirring in his stomach became too much, and he weakly blacked out.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The morning hours passed and night came quickly today, time seemed to move fast, minutes turned to hours before anyone realized it.

Iruka lay unconscious in Neji's study, laying almost peacefully across the bed, under the warmth of the covers. Kakashi sat faithfully at his side, slumping lazily in his chair with an elbow resting against the top of the backrest behind him. He sat patiently, his forehead protector hiding his Sharingan eye while his visible one peered through the window.

At the moment he didn't feel too worried, maybe it was because it was three in the morning and he was tired. He didn't feel bored, despite the fact he'd been sitting here for hours with nothing to do. He simply watched and waited, and so far he was doing so in vain. Iruka hadn't made so much as a move since he passed out. The only good thing Kakashi could look too was that he was alive.

"I don't understand Iruka, why don't you speak to me?" Kakashi sighed, it had been a full day since he found Iruka in this way, the only time Iruka seemed to be at peace was in his sleep. "Why don't you say anything, why don't you want to talk?" The man buried his hand into his hair, shifting around his elbow on the back rest. He didn't understand any of this, "What's happening to you..."

It didn't matter if Iruka was awake or not, he wouldn't get an answer either way.

He was less worried about Iruka's non-speech, his main concerned was his behavior, which Kakashi was sure was related to Iruka's physical change. It wasn't a drastic one, or a big one like Kiba's or Naruto when the Kyuubi's influence took place. His eyes drew a tent of red, turning the soft brown eyes a burgandy color, and two fangs grew. He became so different, he looked as if he couldn't see out of his open eyes, they weren't even focused, but Iruka had pounced on him as if he could perfectly. And he attacked him, he was like a wild animal, and Kakashi was actually afraid when he looked into Iruka's unfocused eyes.

But who wouldn't be. And what exactly had Iruka been doing anyway?

"Iruka..." Kakashi looked away, tilting his eyes over to the window again. It was a clear night, not a cloud in the sky, the stars were bright over a blanket of dark blue."Things are never simple around here. I went on just about every mission with you, how could this have happened?" Iruka didn't go on as many mission as the rest of them, being the manger of a growing company occupied most of his time.

Kakashi glanced curiously at the door as he heard the knob turning and the door creeping open. Neji trudged in, upright as usual, but a visible slump was in his form from tiredness. Gaara was behind him, looking indifferent as usual, but he was used to not sleeping. "Kakashi, your still awake." Neji said with light surprise. "It's pretty late."

Kakashi pushed himself up strait. "Find out anything?"

"A few useful things." Neji sat down at his desk, pulling his chair around towards Kakashi. "I wasn't sure before, but after seeing Iruka's transformation of appearance, and the demon that most likely did this to him, I'm pretty sure Iruka has Type 3- Blood tainting."

"What does that mean?"

"The trembling is a symptom, anxiety too, that must have been why he started fighting when you tried to move him." Neji explained. "About 24 hours later comes muscle weakness, 36, nausea and dizziness, then loss of self control, and a sate described basically as insanity. The only resolutions are death and or irregular cell mutation, then after that drastic changes in behavior, tendencies, things of that nature."

"Cell mutation huh?" Kakashi leaned forward and glanced at the sleeping Iruka. "Like fangs and different color eyes?"

Neji shook his head. "I don't know, this is all coming on much too fast."

"That demon." Gaara said, his generally voice was a surprise between the two. "It was doing something to him."

"Yeah, it was wasn't it." Neji remembered, looking up through the dark room thoughtfully. "It said something about him changing, it obviously was talking about the blood tainting, and it also said it couldn't wait until it was done. Whatever it did must have sped up the process, he attacked Kakashi, that must have the insanity symptom."

"Or the change in behavior that comes after it's all finished." Gaara added.

Not a pleasant thought. "He hasn't said anything since last night, is that a symptom also?" Kakashi asked.

"Actually no." Neji shrugged. "I don't know why he hasn't said anything. It's not related at all."

Kakashi rubbed his hidden eye through the forehead protector, staring at Iruka "So..why?" He didn't understand this. "Why isn't he saying anything? Why isn't he talking..."

"I don't know, maybe there was something he didn't want to say, or he just didn't want to talk. " Neji shrugged. "The bad news is there is no way to really stop it, we could try to give him some medicine for the symptoms but..."

"What?"

"I don't know about that, we don't know what type of cell mutation is taking place, his body is changing and doing that could make any number of reactions happen to him that wouldn't necessarily have happened before." Neji told him disappointedly. "Even worse whatever that demon did to him it looks to be speeding up the process, it might be too late to do anything but wait."

"Wait for what?"

"A level of cell mutation has already taken place, the best we can do is wait and see if he wakes up."

Gaara's expression visibly downcast when he heard that, could Iruka actually die? And even worse, would he still be the same if he did? "If he wakes up...Will he be alright? He attacked Kakashi, he wasn't himself."

"I don't know." Neji could do nothing more now, that was all he knew.

"Are you sure it's this?" Gaara asked, a clear hope in his words. "Are you sure it's not something else, he's not talking at all, that has to be caused by something." Gaara hoped Neji was wrong, that it wasn't this, that Iruka had something more treatable, that would give him some chance of returning to normal.

"I wish it wasn't but, it is. There is no physical reason for Iruka not saying anything, I think he just doesn't want to talk."Neji told him.

Gaara sighed, his eyes drifting down to the ground. "I don't know...he looked like he wanted to say something to me..." Earlier when Gaara tried to talk with Iruka, he seemed somewhat normal for a while, and the look in his eyes. He seemed like he wanted to talk, like he wanted to say something but he just couldn't get it out.

"Then, I guess we can only wait."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Kakashi lifted his hand over his mouth as a yawn made it drift open and inhale deeply. His eyes slowly opened to the familiar and sun soaked settings of Neji's study. "Mmm..." Kakashi pushed himself upright in his chair and sleepily gazed around. Neji was still sleeping, sitting across the room with his head resting on his desk. Gaara was still awake, sitting on the ground with his back against the wall and his arms resting on drawn up knees. He just sat there, watching Iruka faithfully.

Kakashi couldn't help but wondered what Gaara possibly did staying awake for that long?

"Gaara?"

Gaara didn't look at him, he just continued to peer at Iruka, barely even blinking. Kakashi debated if he was even paying attention to his sight anymore. "Kakashi." He said acknowledgingly.

He wondered what Gaara thought about for that long period of time, what else was there to do? "Any change?"

"None."

Kakashi sighed, maybe this would be longer then he hoped. 'Damnit..' He was starting to feel like Gaara, wishing he could do something more then wait. Usually he was rational enough to do it, but this wasn't exactly a ration situation. 'Iruka please wake up...'

"Kakashi?" Gaara said with some reluctance, his eyes still focused on Iruka. "What if he wakes up but he's not himself, what if he's still the way he was?" He didn't know what it would actually be like when Iruka woke up, was that state of mind just temporary?

"I don't know..." Kakashi could only shake his head unsurely, he hoped not, he really hoped not.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Another day passed and nightfall came, with time still nothing changed, Iruka never made so much as a single move.

Naruto pushed open the door silently, peeking inside Neji's study from the library. He felt somewhat like a failure coming back in here, he was almost hoping no one else was in this room, then maybe they wouldn't ask.

Naruto slipped inside of the room, leaving the door open behind him as he walked across the dark area towards the sleeping Iruka. There didn't seem to be anyone else here, Neji and Kakashi had gone, for the moment at lest, and all that remained was Iruka... And Gaara, still siting in the same spot beside the door, seemingly with nothing else more important he needed to take care of.

"Naruto?" Gaara looked up at Naruto, then with remembrance his eyes gained some hope. "Did you find anything?"

Naruto sighed, he'd been looking for a day strait, and a good part of yesterday, for some thing that would remotely help Iruka. Something that would cure him, which was so unlikely that even Naruto could see that, something that would at lest slow whatever was happening, something that would ease the symptoms, _anything_. "Not a thing." He said, dropping his head with disappoint at his own failure. "Has...has he done anything yet?"

"No." Gaara shook his head.

Naruto could have almost been fooled, Iruka looked so peaceful that he could mistake him for just being asleep. Maybe this was a good sign? Maybe he was at peace, maybe whatever made him do what he did passed and he would wake up soon... On the other hand, maybe it wasn't a good thing when someone slept for so long and didn't even at lest make a single move. Maybe he was comatose, maybe he couldn't move.

"I can't do this..."

Gaara could just see Naruto rubbing his eyes furiously with the sleeve of his jacket before the other boy forced himself to lift his head. "What?"

"Maybe it's like Neji said and there's no use." Naruto turned around, his face tensely strait, but it could still be seen he had been crying, and still was fighting not to. "But I can't just wait around, I have to do something, I have to help Iruka."

"..." Gaara was obviously more accepting of Neji's news, despite the fact inside he felt the same way Naruto did. So he didn't say anything, he didn't contradict Naruto.

Naruto crossed the room with quick steps, pushing his way out of the door and back into the library.

"Naruto..."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Morning came for the third time since Iruka's symptoms started, and it wasn't as bright as it had been in previous days. The sky was cloudy and overcast, a slate gray with even darker clouds drifting around on slightly stronger winds. Little light came through, leaving patchy with shadows anywhere the dim illumination from the window didn't reach completely.

Kakashi sat in his usual spot beside Iruka's bed, Gaara was gone though, he'd managed to pry the boy out of the room and made him find Naruto and go to sleep.

...Burgundy eyes drifted open with sleepy confusion, the last bits of sleep fading as their vision sharpened into place. Iruka laid there for a few seconds, while his mind compiled itself and he started to remember things... And he remembered _everything_, a chill shook it's way along his spine and he bolted upright with shock when he remembered the last thing he did. His mind stared to race and his heart pounded, he couldn't breath! He found himself gasping, struggling for air that only seemed to remotely reach his lungs if he breathed hard enough.

'?' Kakashi's eyes slowly opened, hearing the rustling of movement somewhere close. At first he thought it was Gaara returning, he was worried enough to comeback.

But after a few seconds he became more aware and realized what direction it was coming from. Kakashi pushed himself upright in his chair and looked around the room, no trace of Gaara... "Iruka!" Kakashi almost couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the man sitting up, it wasn't how imaged him waking up but he'd take it. "Your awake!" Kakashi quickly pushed himself on to his feet and ran over to the side of Iruka's bed.

Iruka flinched when he realized Kakashi was there, but he barely took notice even then, his mind was too preoccupied with the flooding memories of the events that transpired. "..." Iruka looked up at Kakashi, his eyes frantic with surprise and his body starting to tremble again, he looked as if he didn't know what to do. "..." Iruka winced slightly when he felt himself bite his tongue, he seemed surprised when he felt the same tongue in the same mouth brushing against something completely different. "!" He immediately clasped his hands over his mouth when he realized what they were...

"Iruka." Kakashi didn't know what to do, Iruka was afraid, frantic, like he didn't know where he was, all of this was new and frightening. "Iruka calm down, what's wrong?"

Iruka looked up at him like a frightened child, his eyes afraid and pleading, he seemed like he wanted to say something to Kakashi, but he was simply too scared to make a sound. "..."

"Iruka, please, just talk to me..." Kakashi half begged, he couldn't take this, Iruka was in such bad shape, he wanted to know what was wrong,what he could do. "Tell me, what's wrong?"

Iruka's movements became more frantic, his shaking body trying to articulate something that just wouldn't come out.

"Iruka, what is it?" Kakashi was starting to grow frustrated, he had to do something, Iruka just wouldn't let him know what, he wouldn't make a sound. "Say something, what's the problem?"

He...couldn't, he just couldn't, he didn't know why or how, but he couldn't."..." Iruka looked away, his hands clinching his head tightly as if this was all to much, silent tears forming in his eyes.

Kakashi felt like Iruka must have right now, wanting to say so many things but it just wouldn't come, Kakashi wanted to help, and if he only knew what was wrong... "Iruka..." Kakashi sat down on the bed beside Iruka and wrapped his arms the shaking man, pulling him into a strong embrace. "It's alright...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you."

Iruka seemed to hide almost, holding his hands over his face as more tears came and more trembling made it's way through his body. His shoulder shook with soundless sobs, the only noise he made was of his heavy breaths.

Kakashi didn't understand this at all, if there was nothing physically wrong with him, then why couldn't Iruka talk? Even if he didn't want to say anything to Kakashi, not making a single sound when he was crying? There had to be something wrong...

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I should have realized something was wrong with you earlier, I never should have even let you fight that thing in your condition."

He didn't know if Iruka was hearing word of what he was saying. Iruka just shook in his arms, crying...

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"He's awake?" Neji could barely believe it, he didn't know why, but he didn't think he'd actually wake up so soon. "How is?"

"Terrified, shaken up." Kakashi said, leaning against the wall beside the door of Neji's study. " He's been awake for about an hour and a half, he hasn't made a sound or anything yet."

Neji sighed, rubbing the back of his neck softly as he glanced up to the second floor balcony where Naruto sat with his legs crossed and a book in hand. "He hasn't attacked you or done anything like that yet has he?"

"No."Kakashi denied. "He's sleeping again, your the first person I've told."

"I should go check up on him then." Neji grabbed he handle of the door and slowly pushed it open, trying to make as little sound as possible when he entered, watching the light from the larger room outside creeping into the shadowy area inside.

Neji walked over to the side of the bed where Iruka was laying with his back to them, curled into a fetal position like before. He'd moved, that was good. "..." Neji lent forward, planting an arm the bed to hold himself up as he pushed himself over Iruka, reaching out for his chin with his other hand. Just as he was about to check the man's pulse, Iruka slowly uncurled from the ball he was in and rolled over on to his back. They both found themselves staring curiously at each other. "Iruka?"

Apparently Iruka hadn't been as sleep as Kakashi thought.

! - ! - !

"Is he really awake?" Naruto nearly shouted, he immediately was filled with an overwhelming excitement. He woke up, then he was alright! "Is he ok?"

"Keep it down." Kakashi prompted. "He's asleep again."

"Can I go in and see him?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Yeah."

Naruto's face beamed with a happy relief, Iruka was ok, he was ok. The release of all of that anxious tension was almost overwhelming, it brought on another type of anxious energy in itself, he could almost cry. Naruto forced himself to be calm when he pushed open the door and walked inside the room, he was even more delighted to see that the man was awake again.

"Iruka!" Naruto ran over to Neji's side, looking over the two carefully. "Iruka your ok!"

Iruka only looked up at Naruto and blinked, his eyes still holding the desperateness of a needy child as they had when he looked up at Kakashi. Like he wanted to say something.

"Iruka?" Naruto leaned forward and looked at the man curiously. "You look different, how do you feel?"

Iruka's face grew a dreaded curiosity when he heard those words, as if confirming a fear he hoped wouldn't be true. Iruka sat upright, staring down at his hands resting in his lap like he was searching for a change, then his hands slowly raised to his face and began feeling around. For the first time since Neji seen him in the last 4 days, Iruka opened his mouth and his fingers brushed against the fangs that resided there now. And his mind flashed with remembrance. "!" Iruka jumped, and with out warning he grabbed Neji by the collar of his shirt and pulled him downward roughly.

'!' Neji's first reaction when he saw the new fangs and felt Iruka grab him this hard without reason was the thought of when he attacked Kakashi. So he reflexively pushed away with one hand and threw a hard punch to Iruka's jaw with the other, forcibly making the man let go.

"Iruka!" Naruto didn't know whether to be angry at Neji or weary of Iruka, he looked franticly between the two for some clue of what he should be doing next. Neji wasn't any help, he was just as confused as Naruto was.

Iruka fell back slightly from surprise but came right back, this time he at lest had the rationality of mind to take hold of Neji's arms to keep him from hitting him again, and the speed to do so before the boy moved away.

Neji struggled against Iruka's strength, looking down fearfully down at the man that bound him "Iruka sto..." Until his eyes finally met with Iruka's and he realized the man wasn't doing anything else, he wasn't attacking him like he first thought. Just staring up at him with his mouth open slightly, just as afraid as he was. "Iruka..."

"W-What..." Naruto still was unsure of what to do, but he was relieved to see Iruka wasn't trying to hurt Neji...he thought at lest, he really couldn't tell. "Iruka what is it?"

"Iruka?" Neji stared at the man questioningly he didn't get it. "What is it?"

Iruka didn't make a sound, but the confused expression didn't fade, he still looked like he wanted to say something, even more so then before, like his life depended on it. "..."

Neji just shook his head and glanced at Naruto, who could only shrug. "What is it? What do you want me to do?" Neji asked. But of course he didn't get an answer. "Maybe...Maybe there is something else wrong with him..."

"I guess there's no use asking him things then..." Naruto sighed, standing up strait with a dishartened expression. "Oh man...Iruka."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It had taken awhile to get over things, and to get Iruka to let go of Neji.

Iruka sat over the edge of the bed, leaning forward slightly with his arms resting on his knees and his head held down. Neji stood over him, Naruto sat in the chair beside the bed and in between the safe, while Kakashi leaned idly against the wall, watching.

"Iruka."

Iruka lifted his head and looked up at Neji.

Neji placed his hand on Iruka's forehead, the other one pressed against Iruka's throat and rubbed around softly. "No swelling...Feel any soreness?"

Iruka just looked up at him, but his facial expression remained as depressed as ever.

Neji took that as a no. "Open your mouth for me."

Iruka's burgandy eyes downcast, he couldn't seem to look at Neji or anyone strait anymore when he was asked this, showing some reluctance when finally did open his mouth, wide.

Neji lent forward slightly and peered inside of his mouth, 'Bakyugan!' His eyes gained a second vision as his blood line became active... "How's your breathing? Is it harder to breathe then normal?"

Iruka's face didn't change at all, and he made no action to make a gesture.

"Alright." He took a step back and Iruka quickly shut his mouth again, Neji would have normally said he was embarrassed about his new found transformation, but it seemed worse then just simple embarrassment, like he couldn't seem to express things completely anymore, or was too depressed to do so.

"Anything?" Naruto asked.

It had been about 30 minutes, and he'd given Iruka a full examination, and with it finished he disappointedly shook his head. "There are a few changes in his body, but there's nothing effecting his speech, nothing physically wrong with it at lest."

Naruto scratched his head. "So why isn't he saying anything?"

"It could only be Hysterical neurosis."

Naruto was even more confused, he wasn't even sure he'd heard it right. "Huh?"

Neji sighed, "A Conversion disorder."

Kakashi looked at Iruka and sighed, he didn't think of that. "Really?"

"Wait." Naruto started to feel left out, he was the only who didn't know what this was. "What is that?"

"It's a type of somatoform disorder, psychological problems produce physical symptoms." Neji told him. "It's usually very sudden and follows a stressful and/or traumatic experience, some psychological problem or problems he's dealing with causes loss of a physical function, and in this case, loss of speech."

"So all of it's in his head?" Naruto said, satisfied with his answer. "Alright, Iruka your just imagining it, just say something."

Neji shook his head, it seemed Naruto didn't get it. "It's more serious then that Naruto, it's a really serious problem, and it's not gonna go away just by him realizing it's 'all in his head'. The only thing we can really do is help him understand the underlying psychological conflict and hope it resolves itself."

"Oh man..." Naruto sighed, he still didn't get it completely but there was nothing he could even do about it. None of them knew exactly what the problem, or problems were. But he couldn't help thinking it was connected to the fangs in his mouth. It seemed to be the obvious connection. "What about his eyes, and his teeth?"

"That's a mutation from the blood tainting...That might be it all of the mutations but I doubt it, other symptoms are suppose to be present. But since he can't talk we don't know what they are." Neji folded his arms and stepped back, folding his arms disappointedly as he stared at Iruka, who was still looking down seemingly unaware of what they were saying.

Kakashi and Naruto noticed Iruka's almost indifference too what was being said, they would have thought he couldn't hear them too if he hadn't responded to Neji's commands. "What's with him, he's not even trying to answer." Naruto sat beside Iruka and looked over him with a concentrated look, Iruka barely acted like they were here.

"The other symptom to Blood tainting is suppose to be a drastic change in behavior and tendencies right?" Kakashi asked. "Is this it?"

"I doubt it, they're not supposed to be like this... Hmm..." Neji lifted his hand to his chin and paused thoughtfully...he couldn't really tell just yet. "Not sure."

The door opened and the shadowy room was partially lit by the lights of the library. Konohamaru came in and kicked the door shut behind him, carrying a pile of folded clothing in his arms. "Iruka, I brought you some clothes, it's kinda cold in here." Konohamaru walked past Neji and held the clothing out before Iruka.

Iruka lifted his head and looked the clothing, and then Konohamaru, a sad expression coming on to his face when he looked at the boy.

"..."

"Huh?" Konohamaru was a little confused when he didn't get an answer, all he got was a rather depressing look. "What's the matter?"

"It's no use, he can't talk." Naruto told him.

"Oh..." Konohamaru's expression dropped visibly, he was really worried now. "Well, here anyway." Konohamaru set the clothes down in Iruka's lap, and quickly turned and left, the air was too depression, and he didn't know what was going on anyway, he'd just be in the way.

"Hey wait!" A streak of inspiration crossed Naruto's face and he stood up quickly, running over to Neji's desk and began abruptly began rummaging through it.

"Naruto?" Neji obviously didn't have a clue what Naruto was doing. "Naruto? What are you doing?"

"Hold on...Here it is!" Naruto emerged with a sheet of paper and pencil in hand and ran back over to Iruka "Write it down." He said proudly.

Iruka sat upright and took the pencil and paper from Naruto, his expression lighting a bit as he set the paper down on the clothes in his lap and began transcribing something. He seemed to be doing well, until his writing pace slowed and his face began to grow a horrified look. Finally his hand stopped completely and Iruka just stared at the hand holding the pencil. It was shaking subtilty, it hadn't stopped shaking since he woke up. It was noticeable now "..." Iruka held up the paper in front of his eyes...

"What? What is it?" Naruto took the paper from Iruka and looked over it, and just as soon as he saw it he tilted the sheet to the side. "What is this? It's just squiggles." He handed back to Kakashi who stared at it.

And Kakashi understood the look on Iruka's face now, the shaking made it too difficult to write clearly. "Iruka..."

Iruka threw the pencil on the ground and dropped his head, he nearly cried right then and there.

"I'm not sure if the shaking is apart of the conversion disorder or whatever is happening to him." Neji said. "If he can't talk, and his hand is too unsteady to write, then how do we find out what's wrong with him?"

Kakashi sighed, tossing the paper aside. "We'll figure something out until he get's better, just... Let me be alone with him for a while."

Neji and Naruto looked at each other, then Iruka. They'd never seen him like this, but they'd never anyone quite like this. "Yeah, ok." Neji nodded in agreement. "Let's go Naruto." Neji slipped out of the room, Naruto disappointedly trailing behind him.

Kakashi didn't move until he heard the door shut behind them, clearing the room of light from the library and shrouding it with the patchy shadows of light from the overcast skies outside. He watched as tears started to fall from Iruka's eyes, spilling on to the wooden floors in small drops.

"It's alright." Kakashi sat down beside Iruka and wrapped his arms around the man again. "I don't know what's wrong exactly, but you'll get better, your strong, I know you will."

Iruka laid his head on Kakashi's shoulder, more silent tears falling from his eyes. "..."

Kakashi closed his eyes and pulled him closer, he just wished he knew what he could do, he wish he knew what was going on with him. Iruka couldn't seem to catch a break, blood tainting had done something and as far as they knew still was doing something to him, and had a conversion disorder, not to mention he couldn't stop shaking. What was he suppose to do now?

Iruka slowly wrapped his arms around Kakashi and hugged him back, letting himself settled into the embrace.

! - ! - !


	27. Chapter 27: Precious things

Chapter 27: Precious things.

Two weeks.

Two weeks had passed since Iruka lost the ability to speak, and to write it seemed. Gaara was sure Iruka was starting to come to terms with it, his demeanor and way of acting since it happen was starting to change into something somewhat normal again. The red haired boy sat in his usual spot he'd come to be alone to train from time to time, sitting in the center of the waterfall from a storm carved river less then a mile away from SDI.

His shirt and gourd were dispatched on shore and he sat with his legs cross atop a single rock extending just over the river's surface in the center of the waterfall. Surrounded by the short grasses of the fields covering the land, the green strands wavering in the increasing winds. The sky was an illuminated white, patched with thick gray clouds, glumly overcast. Rain dripped down from above in a small spray, pounding into the water with light imprints and ripples from each drop. It never seemed to stop raining, Gaara couldn't help but muse how it seemed to constant rain was somehow linked to Iruka.

Gaara's eye twitched with light annoyment, forcing his mind to focus on the music blaring in his headphones, loud enough to drown out the world and almost his thoughts with it. Maybe if he got it a little louder he wouldn't be able to think and it would solve his problem.

But still he couldn't help but think of Iruka. The man was starting to become his normal, parental self, but it was hard not to notice how depressed he was. His eyes were lighter, but he hadn't smiled, Gaara missed that smile, he couldn't help but think how much more Kakashi must have missed it. Iruka tried to do things, but he'd been restricted from missions, his usual pinpoint accuracy since he now specialized in wind and projectiles was horribly off because of the shaking. And he couldn't seem to fight anyway, when he did it was like he wasn't even trying though he was, like he lost all strength, will and experience on the subject, not to mention he couldn't do some of the more complicated hand seals he needed.

Gaara felt sorry for him, Iruka still cried every night, sometimes he couldn't even bare to stay with Kakashi, forcing the man away and going off to some secluded place to be alone. Gaara infact knew where he went, to a tree just above the waterfall, he seemed to take to that spot. Still, Iruka was doing better each day, he even started eating again.

It was hard to understand him since he couldn't talk or write, but they started to figure out what he meant, though it was like playing charades, Iruka often got frustrated with it. 'Iruka...' Gaara growled in frustration, shoving the headphones down around his neck, pushing his soaked hair away from his eyes. Every damn time! Every time he didn't get sleep for more then 2 days he started to get strange thoughts, he couldn't focus at all on his training.

He wondered how long it would take him until his thoughts started to become homicidal again...

'Damnit!' Gaara narrowed his eyes, there he went again, it was useless. So he slid the headphones back over his ears and listened to the blaring music, letting his mind wonder to it's content. As soon as he stopped trying to focus he became emersed, feeling the water streaming down his back in a heavy sheet as he listened to the heavy bass that made his ears shake, feeling the water streaming over his shoulder and sticking to his chest in a small river as the rhythmic beat played like a pulse, a life line to the song. Feeling the cold water drenching every bit of his body, indistinguishable against the rain as the poetic rhyme of lyrics blended perfectly with the other instruments at the perfect tempo in line with the beat.

He still could never understand how an assortment of sounds could be this pleasing.

! -! - !

Konohamaru tilted his head back and stared up at the sky when he felt the small drops of water start to fall from the sky. The forest became suddenly alive as the small drops of water falling from the sky started to grow in intensity, rattling the leaves as they pounded down, Suddenly Konohamaru was in the mist of a storm, though the trees provided somewhat of a cover. "It's raining?"

Konohamaru looked around at the tall trees rooted firmly in the muddy ground, acting as a sanctum for him as he trained. He let his hands, drop to his sides and his body fall out of it's fighting stance, releasing the metal Kunais and listening as they embedded themselves into the ground at his feet. He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back again as a wet breeze swept through the trees and fluttered his scarf behind him.

Damn trees! He couldn't even feel it from here!

Konohamaru crouched lightly, feeling the familiar feeling of his Chakra starting to spin skillfully in his torso, it was the one of the things he had actually mastered. Then with all the silence Itachi had taught him, Konohamaru leapt up into the air, planting his feet on the trunk of one of the tall trees and kicking off, repelling himself higher into the air as he reached the tree beside it and kicked himself even higher. He moved faster and faster, as fast as his skill would allow, moving with a ninja's stealth until he landed on a branch at lest 50 feet up. From there it was short leaps until he reached the peak of the canopy, standing with a graceful balance on the top branch where nothing was over head to obstruct him from the gray clouds of the sky.

Konohamaru smiled and opened his eyes, staring at the sky as the rain fell on his face and soaked the spiky brown hair protruding in an unruly mass from his head. The small drizzle quickly increased to a full on rain storm and drowned out any sound but the small drops ruffling the magnitude of leaves. It soaked him quickly, drenching every inch of his body, but he didn't care, he loved when it rained.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Iruka crouched lightly, bringing his body back into a fighting stance with a shiruken clinched tightly in his hand. His eyes focused on his target laying strait a head, the trunk of a large tree that looked to be several hundred years old, already littered with kunais and shirukens all over the tree, some on the ground beside it. None of which had hit the mark he set.

He ignored the rain soaking his body as he thrust the small object froward and launched it toward the tree, watching it hit a branch rather far from the trunk. Actually not even close.

What the hell!

Iruka stared down at his hands with narrowed eyes, watching the subtile trembling that threw his accuracy off by bounds. That trembling that made his hand seals practically impossible. "..." He couldn't do it, he'd been at this for an hour and he hadn't even gotten close to hitting his mark. It had finally set in, this wasn't working "..."

"Hey, Iruka-sama."

Iruka flinched when he saw Kakashi fall from the tree in front of him, landing no more then a few feet off. When he saw the clothing and heard the familiar suffix on his name he knew it was Kakashi's double, and as soon as he saw his injured body with slashes and cuts across his battle ridden body. The familiar taste of his blood came into his mouth in a vivid memory, but he ignored the longing he had for it, as he'd learned to do. "..."

"Iruka-sama." The doppelganger looked upon him lightly with that same happy expression Iruka always saw him with. The wind ruffling his soaked hair and throwing rain at him. Then that expression became questioning when he saw Iruka's face and his non-response. "Iruka...Iruka." Kakashi waved a hand in front of the man's face and forced him to look up from his hands. "Are you ok?"

Iruka just stared at him with a blank look, though a clearly saddened demeanor about him. "Something wrong?" Kakashi asked. Iruka just head his head down and looked away. "Iruka...what is it?"

"..."

Iruka wasn't speaking to him, he wasn't even looking at him, but he wasn't pushing him away and rushing him to leave. Something really must have been wrong. "Your not alright are you?" The copy glance back over his shoulder at the tree littered with projectiles, none of them striking their mark. Which was surprising since Iruka had considerable accuracy.

Come to think of it, the last time he'd seen Iruka the man had been acting strangely...

Kakashi wrapped his arm around Iruka's shoulder and gently wiped the rain from his eyes, but just as soon it was gone more replaced it. Iruka still didn't look at him, unspeaking. "Come on Iruka-sama, look at me." The taller demon reached down and slowly cuffed Iruka's chin, gently raising his face, even still Iruka's eyes shifted away, and he looked almost like a frightened child avoiding something fearful. "Iruka-sama..." Kakashi slowly leaned down and looked into the brown eyes that were forced to look back at him from the close proximity.

Kakashi stared into the eyes that became meek with questioning. 'Iruka...' He closed his eyes and slowly leaned downward, pressing his lips against Iruka's in a soft kiss. And just as soon he was roughly shoved back and a strong punch to the jaw made him stumble off balance slightly. He couldn't help but laugh when he looked at the angry glare Iruka was giving him, finally, some emotion, he was actually paying attention. Kakashi wasn't even sure Iruka had looked at him once before this. "Sorry, Sorry." He lifted his hands surrenderingly and tried his best to stop laughing. "I couldn't resist."

Iruka folded his arms and turned away, walking off angrily. "..."

Kakashi ran after him, wrapping his arm around Iruka's shoulder again. "Ok, Ok, I won't try it again, but I had to _something_." He said. "If that didn't get you to talk I guess nothing will." He sighed to himself, looking down at Iruka thoughtfully. What was it? What was wrong with him? Iruka just slipped away from his arm and walked past him, completely silent with downcast eyes. "Don't be like that Iruka-sama." Iruka could general take his flirtation, but usually he didn't leave, he told the copy to leave. Yet another thing off.

"..."

With out wasting a second he quickened his stride to catch up with the man. "There is something really wrong with you huh?" Kakashi slipped in front of Iruka and placed his hands on the man's shoulders, forcing him to stop. "You can't talk right? Is that apart of it?"

"..." Iruka looked up at him with the same child like eyes, but he snapped out of it quicker then before, his eyes narrowing to an angry annoyance. Iruka pressed his hands against the copy's chest and started pushing him away.

But he wouldn't let go. "Iruka-sama please, something's wrong with you, just let me help." He almost pleaded. But Iruka still pushed him, trying to pry him away while his eyes averted themselves someplace else. "Iruka-sama no, I'm not gonna let you run away like this. You have to tell me some thing...somehow." Kakashi looked down at Iruka's hands against his chest and his arms, noticing that before Iruka would have easily pushed him away, now he was somewhat weaker. And his arms shook slightly, he could feel his hands trembling against his wet shirt.

"Iruka-sama..." The double reached down and grabbed Iruka's hands, and Iruka froze, looking at him almost fearfully. Iruka didn't want him to know, he didn't want anyone to know, he'd prefer it if his friends didn't know. The man tred to pull his hands from the demon's grasp but he couldn't seem to pry them away, no matter how desperately he tried. "Your hands are shaking..."

Iruka froze again, as if one his deepest secretes had been revealed, holding his head down and his eyes away.

He noticed some other things too. "And your eyes are kinda darker now, Iruka what's wrong with you?" Kakashi asked. He softly pushed a stray strand of hair from his eyes, now wet and sagging from the rain.

"..." He looked up at him, as if he wanted to say something, but just like always the words wouldn't come.

And he saw it, when Iruka opened his mouth just a little, there they were. "Iruka-sama!" Kakashi quickly cuffed Iruka's chin and slipped his thumb between Iruka's lips, pulling his mouth open. He wasn't expecting it, and saw them again, he had to be sure. "Your teeth...they're..."

"..." Iruka quickly tried to pull away, but again Kakashi wouldn't let him. Yet he kept fighting with a renewed effort, desperately trying to get away, to getaway from everyone, to hide.

"Iruka-sama, stop, please." Kakashi reached up and ceased him by the arms, halting his resistance for the most part since he'd taken most of his leverage. Iruka shook his head frantically, still trying to escape. "Iruka-sama!" Iruka jumped at the forceful tone he'd never heard the doppelganger use, snapping his eyes on to the demon with a surprised flinch. His breathing grew heavier and his heart pounded... and all at once Iruka dropped his head and cried silent tears, his shoulders shaking with unheard sobs.

What? He was crying? What was this that had Iruka so lost, so confused, so...like this? "Oh God Iruka-sama..." Kakashi wrapped his arms around the trembling shoulders and pulled the man into a soft embrace almost instinctively. Iruka didn't fight it, he seemed morbidly out of place between what he wanted to do, what he usually would have done, and what he was now feeling the urge to do. He rarely fought any action towards him anymore, like he was too confused to. The double was somewhat thankful the man didn't fight this, he wanted more then anything to just hold him like this...

"..." Iruka didn't seem to care anymore, he clinched the wet fabric of Kakashi shirt and cried, it was never clear on what, it could have been about any number of things.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you like this."Kakashi apologized remorsefully, slipping a hand into Iruka's hair and tucking the man's head comfortably underneath his chin. "What happened to you...I guess you can't tell me that huh, well it doesn't matter, As long as your alright." The rain blew into his back with the strong winds, shielding Iruka's body from the downpour.

Iruka looked up curiously at the man, the tears washing away with the rain as his eyes grew that child like look again. His eyes drifted down from the demon's face to his shoulder where another familiar cut lay past torn fabric. It was clear what he spent his time doing, fighting demons and things of that nature, which was understandable, since he really didn't have much better to do.

Iruka's eyes fixed themselves on that spot where the odd, silver like liquid flowed, before they drifted closed and he leaned forward. Pressing his mouth against the spot and running his tongue over the bloody gash. He couldn't resist...

Kakashi didn't say anything this time, though he was more confused then he'd ever been, where had this action come from? Iruka was a trembling mess, he was somehow weaker, and now this blood thing? And he had to admit, it felt good, oddly better then he would expect this would feel.

Finally after a few moments the blood was gone, and Iruka had to resist the urge to sink his teeth into the flesh. And when he had to make a conscious decision, an effort not to bite the demon he finally realized what he was doing and flinched, pulling away with his eyes widened.

"No, no!" Kakashi firmed his grip around the man to keep him from retreating. "Not this time, your not going to run away this time. Just calm down."

Iruka held his head down again almost shamefully, staring at himself fearful awe. "..."

"Man I wish you could tell me what's going on with you..." When he was sure Iruka had calmed down he finally let go of him, loosening his grip slowly and taking a step back. Iruka didn't run away, that was a good thing, he hoped. He couldn't tell anymore, Iruka's demeanor had changed so much, something was making him confused. "I can't leave you here like this."

Again Iruka started to display some emotion besides nothingness and depression, he shook his head and lifted his hand denyingly, clearly telling him he couldn't.

"Come on, look at you, you can't be here by yourself." The copy said with clear concern in his voice. "You have a serious demon problem, what if something attacks you?" SDI clearly had a problem with Demon attacks, they happened so often.

Iruka folded his arms and shook his head firmly. "..."

"Iruka-sama."

Iruka shook his head again.

"No way, I'm not-"

Iruka glared at him, shaking his head again.

"Iruka-sama!"

Iruka didn't bother to respond, he simply walked past the copy, heading back towards the SDI building.

The demon ran a hand through the soaked white hair sagging down over his face and wiped the water from his face, a futile effort, just as soon it was soaked again with rain water. He watched Iruka's fleeting form go farther and farther down the sloping hill towards the river that made a sudden cliff like drop off to waterfall not too far beyond where Iruka was. Usually he would have let the man be, but today he couldn't the man clearly was not well, and in good conscious he couldn't leave him alone.

! - ! - !

Iruka didn't get too much farther before he heard a familiar voice seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"Iruka."

Iruka flinched and quickly looked to his left, and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw it was just Kakashi. His eyes narrowed in anger, pretty sure he'd just told him he couldn't follow, until he saw the familiar black of the SDI uniform and realized it was the real Kakashi. "..."

Oh crap, this couldn't end well.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that." Kakashi smiled and rubbed the back of his head, looking over every inch of the man's form. "So, Doing any better."

Iruka shifted his eyes away towards the river flowing beside them, which everyone had learned to be a negative answer.

"Well don't worry, your already doing better." Kakashi reassured him. "Your not missing much anyway, the only missions we've had in a while are muck demons, you really don't wanna deal with that any-"

"Iruka-sama!"

Iruka flinched, he could feel his blood run cold, the thing he'd been fearing would happen though knew mostly would. He and Kakashi looked back as the Doppelganger came from someplace beyond the hill, clearly going after Iruka. "I'm sorry but I can't..." The double froze when he saw his counterpart, who did likewise. On sight a hatred started to rise within the copy, some uncontrollable force that couldn't be denied or repressed, like a force of nature that had to take it's course. "_You_."

Kakashi turned around fully, almost subconsciously reaching up and pushing up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan eye. "Why are you here?"

"Get away from Iruka-sama." The mirror growled protectively, though he wasn't sure anymore if he was really being all that protective of Iruka or just wanted the real Kakashi away from him.

"I have a better idea, why don't you leave?" Kakashi moved past Iruka, taking careful steps past the Iruka towards the demon. Iruka stood behind ideally, seemingly confused on what he should do.

The copy could no longer stand idle it seemed, with a blur of speed he disappeared, and Kakashi quickly slipped his hand behind him, drawing a Kunai and lifting it defensively. Sparks flew when it clashed with another metal blade being driven down at his face as the copy landed dangerously close to him. Kakashi thrust his foot upward in a sharp kick to the demon's stomach, making him stumble back lightly, followed by a hard punch to it's jaw, making him falter even more.

The copy was little more then a blur as he sprinted froward and attempted to tackle the man, but Kakashi was expectant and just as soon as the demon made contact his body disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the double found himself holding a rock instead, a rock with an explosive tag. '!' The copy quickly tossed the rock to his left and dived aside as the stone skimmed across the surface of the river and detonated, the burst of smoke and upturned water throwing a concealed Kakashi with a torrent of the liquid onto the opposite bank.

Kakashi barely had time to recover from the explosion, with the same skillful speed his copy was coming directly at him. Though he saw that speed differently then others, with the Sharingan eye the speed didn't appear nearly as fast as it did to others, he could track every motion. He sprang backwards a few feet when his double thrust the Kunai towards his stomach and quickly grabbed the copy by the arm, with a fluid motion he turned around so that his back was facing his opponent and pulled the copy over his shoulder by the ceased arm, slamming him to the ground and stealing the blade from his hand. "Leave Iruka alone!" Kakashi growled, thrusting the blade down at the copy's head.

The copy clasped the blade between his hands and caught it before before he was impaled then rolled out of the way. He stumbled to stand again on the slippy, rain soaked grass but still managed to regain himself before his counterpart could attack again. "_You_ leave Iruka-sama alone!" The double reached behind him and all of a sudden a torrent of Kunais were flying at Kakashi.

'!' Kakashi quickly darted to the left, his body growing tense as he felt them slipping dangerously close by as they trailed after him. 'Lightening edge!' Turning on heal as soon as the last of the string of the blades missed their mark, Kakashi darted froward with his left hand stretched outward, he didn't lose a step on the wet ground, traveling with his normal speed. A blue energy formed in his palm, a static electricity that crackled as the drops of rain struck it. "You don't know when to quit!"

'!' The double flinched when saw the energy coming unavoidably at him, he did the only thing he could. "Mirror!" Like a streak of lighting itself, a reflective surface appeared in front of the doppelganger's outstretched arms, just as Kakashi thrust the lighting edge froward, and they inevitably collided. The real Kakashi found his eyes looking at himself being electrocuted, which was because he was being electrocuted, by his own attack no less.

'He...reflected the jutsu...' Kakashi stumbled backwards, smoldering with his jaw clinched to keep from crying out. The mirror holding the image of his tired, panting body shattered, revealing his reflection in an identical state, only with an odd side effect. The doppelganger's body was black and white, skin, clothing and all, but slowly regaining color. 'He really is a demon...' .

Before the copy Kakashi would have been freaked out by this events, but it had happened to him so many times after taking a damaging hit he'd gotten used to it "Bastard." The double wiped his eyes again, noting how the water seemed to make the attack worse. He couldn't repel it all on such short noticed, he could at lest reflect half it back.

"You realize..." Kakashi took a deep breath and stood up strait, forcing his heartbeat and breathing to stabilize. "Your just insulting yourself."

"Maybe." The copy did the same, noting Kakashi still had the Kunai tightly wrapped in his left hand. With a quick, reflective flash, the double copied Kakashi exactly, taking his pose, posture, weapon and all. "Or I could just be calling you a bastard. We're not exactly the same."

Ok, they were in a sense, but it didn't matter at the moment.

Kakashi extended the arm with the Kunai, clinching his wrist with the other, and a more powerful electricity formed in a static ball that barely held shape in his palm from his Chidori. With out a moment's hesitance he lunched the Kunai toward the copy demon, and the Chidori with it The double was ready and waiting with arms thrust outward. "Mirror." Another mirror appeared, thicker, and as if it was simple light shining into the surface the copy reflected the attack as if he'd launched it himself.

Kakashi was waiting himself, he clasped his hands together in quick hand seals and with a loud rush the water poured out from the river and began twisting around itself. Then the form burst apart, taking shape as a large dragon that whipped over Kakashi's head, diving froward directly into the reflected Chidori with mouth wide. It erupted in a large blast with no flames, throwing so much water into the air the copy and the real Kakashi nearly drowned trying to breath.

Kakashi cringed, it hadn't worked out as he thought it would. 'Damnit.' Then he'd take a more direct method, his eyes scanning the area quickly to target the demon before going after him. But he didn't get farther then a few steps before Iruka came out of nowhere and wrapped his arms around him. "Iruka!"

Both Kakashi and his double stopped, what choice did they have, Iruka was in the way."..." Iruka quickly pulled Kakashi into a strong embrace, looking at the man pleadingly.

"Iruka?" Kakashi pushed the man back slightly, "What?"

Iruka kept staring at him with silent begging, he shook his head, holding Kakashi in place. "..."

"You want us to stop..." Kakashi could plainly see Iruka didn't want it to take place, he looked up at the copy demon.

The demon continued to glare at him with hateful eyes, he couldn't describe what he felt for Kakashi, a hate that drove him to seek the man out and kill him beyond any doubt. It was unnatural, a constant reminder that he was a demon, it was apart of his nature, few things cold stop it. But as much as he hated Kakashi, for no reason, he found his feelings for Iruka were far stronger. He couldn't do this if Iruka would get hurt, so he decided to go, and even though he hated to leave the man with Kakashi, he knew he was leaving him in good, capable hands. "I hope you get better, from whatever it is Iruka-sama."

".." Iruka could only watch as the double disappeared in a streak of speed beyond the rain.

! - ! - !

"Hey, Konohamaru! What are you doing up there!"

Konohamaru flinched and nearly fell off the branch he was sitting on top of when he heard Sasuke's voice from below. 'Sasuke?' Konohamaru opened his eyes and forced himself to awaken at lest half way after easily falling asleep in the torrent of rain. "Sasuke?" Konohamaru started the familiar rotation of his Chakra as he stood up on the somewhat thin branch and leapt down from the 50 foot high tree. Which because of his state of half sleep, he'd forgotten how high up he really was. "!"

He could have sworn he was in that tree beside the SDI building, the felt just alike when he was sleeping.

Luckily, he landed right into Sasuke's arms as usual, his constant hero. Sasuke smirked in his usual, smug way as he set the soaking wet boy down. "What were you doing up there?"

"Training." He said, rubbing the back of his head with a big smile. His hair sagged down in heavy masses around his head, dripping wet and heavy with the rain. "What are you doing?"

"Just came back from a mission." Sasuke shoved his hands in to his pockets and began the trek back home, Konohamaru followed behind him loyally. Sasuke used to find it somewhat annoying, how Konohamaru acted around him, but now... He'd come to enjoy how Konohamaru idolized him, and he was more proud of him then he cared to describe.

Konohamaru nodded and continued on, walking side beside with the older boy in a peaceful silence. Drowning in the sound of the forest in the center of a rain storm, Konohamaru appreciated that sound beyond his own level of maturity and comprehension, he loved the rain like Gaara loved music. He was happy to stay in the loud silence with Sasuke. But he couldn't help grabbing Sasuke's arm and hugging it close to him.

Sasuke glanced down at Konohamaru, though he didn't say anything about it, somewhat embarrassed a small blush crept on to his face. But he didn't pull away, he allowed Konohamaru to clinch his arm affectionately.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Soaked and dripping wet, Gaara walked into the room, leaving behind a trail of water on the carpeted floor, a puddle quickly formed at his feet where he stopped. The muffled sound of music playing loudly in the headphones around his ears that seemed to be almost constant could be clearly heard.

Naruto lifted his head from where he sat on the ground with his legs cross, facing the window with his back to the door. "Gaara, your soaking wet." Naruto looked up at the window where water sheeted down from the other side, blurring the vision of the other side beyond little more then the white, overcast sky. "How'd training go?"

Gaara pushed the soaking wet headphones down from his soaked hair to his neck. "I believe you know the answer to that." He said, slipping the gourd off his back and setting it down next to the door. Then he customarily reached down and took the CD player off of his waist, removing headphones and all and tossing the item aside on the bed.

Ok, So Naruto did know the answer, simply because he knew Gaara, and had a keen understanding of his sleeping process. When Gaara didn't sleep for a while he couldn't focus, that area between the clearness of sleeping and the clearness of total deprivation of sleep. "I guess none of us have gotten much sleep lately." Naruto sat on the ground, completely bare except for a pair of black pants from his SDI uniform. His hands were clasped together in front of his torso, index finger protruding, and he clearly had been doing what Gaara was trying to do which was meditate on something.

Gaara tucked his fingers underneath the rim of the wet shirt and drew it over his head and off his body, throwing the drenched fabric aside next to his gourd. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing." Naruto said, it was a partial lie, something he wasn't sure was an issue worth noting or not. But still, he couldn't help tracing over the black lines of the seal on his stomach with his eyes, noting the cracks, the tiny fractures, the broken lines in some parts of the swirl. A crack had been there ever since Konohamaru penetrated the seal with his own Chakra when they had been trying to rescue Gaara from nightmare. Now there were even more of those tiny lines over the year that had passed since then. What did that mean?

Gaara, generally good at reading Naruto since the boy wasn't very good at hiding things, picked up the unsure nature of Naruto at the moment and decided it wasn't something important. He pushed his pants down and kicked them off to the side, nearby his shirt. "..." Then he slipped out of the boxers that couldn't help but get wet themselves between the rain and the waterfall.

"So." Naruto reached over to the nightstand next to his bed and grabbed a towel sitting on top of the structure. "Pick a favorite song yet?" He asked, tossing the white fabric over his shoulder to Gaara.

Gaara caught the towel, looking down at it curiously for a moment before he started to run it over his dripping hair. "Not really."

"I never figured you to be the type who couldn't decide."Naruto smirked.

"Hn." Gaara tossed the towel onto the bed and began rummaging through the drawers until he found a dry pair of white boxers, which he slipped on promptly. Knowing he was done with any goals and affairs for the day, Gaara walked back over to the bed and picked up the CD player. Slipping the large headphones back over his ears and cradling the device protectively into his hands.

Naruto continued to stare at the rain soaked window pouring a blurry light into the dark room as he heard Gaara's approaching footsteps. He didn't look when Gaara sat down beside him and laid his head on his shoulder, the muffled sounds of music radiating from the headphones. He smiled to himself, content to leave himself like this. "Hey Gaara."

Gaara open his eyes and the green orbs drifted over to Naruto. "?"

"Happy birthday." Naruto's smile grew sheepishly wider as he laid a CD case in Gaara's hands.

Gaara lifted his head and looked down at it questioningly. "W-Wha...How did you-"

"I figured it out." Naruto turned his eyes back to the window, not losing the smile. "I didn't tell anyone, I know you don't like big parties and stuff. Well...Iruka knows but...he's not telling anyone."

"What's this?" Gaara curiously opened the case and took out the CD that resided there.

"I took all your favorite songs from all those other CDs and put them on this one." Naruto said, watching Gaara slip the new CD into the player. "I know it's not much but I didn't know what else to get you."

A smile grew on Gaara's face as he heard the opening cords of one of his most favored songs. "It's perfect. Thank you."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with light embarrassment and smiled again.

Gaara pulled the headphones off of his head and set them lightly over Naruto's ears, before closing his eyes and laying his head on Naruto's shoulder, allowing himself to drift to sleep.

With the door shut the only light came from the blurry outcast of the window, leaving Naruto and Gaara to bask in the rippled, white rays, set apart from the darkness.

! - ! - !


	28. Chapter 28 See ya later

Chapter 28: See ya later

Konohamaru wrapped his arms softly around Sasuke's waist, shifting his head around underneath the older boy's chin. His bare chest was pressed against the fabric of Sasuke's shirt, since he was wearing nothing but a pair of pants. The sounds of soft breaths hung heavy in the air as the two slept peacefully together for the first time in what seemed like a long while. Lately there always seemed to be something that drew them apart, it felt good to do this again, Konohamaru was more content then he'd been in a long time. And Sasuke was silently satisfied with the return of their usually routine, as well as number of different things he didn't say out loud.

Konohamaru felt himself returning to awareness, and he opened his eyes, feeling a strange sensation stirring in his chest. '?' He grew alert quickly, wide awake as if he'd rested well. 'Huh?' Konohamaru's eyes drifted over Sasuke's shoulder and he looked over as much of the room as he could from where he was. It was dark, the only light was that of the moon drifting through the window beside the bed and drowning everything in the window's reach in a lunar blue.

Neither seeing nor sensing anything around them worth interest, Konohamaru closed his eyes and attempted to go back to sleep. That sleep never returned, and he found himself wide awake, staring at the back of his eye lids for 15 minutes. He was wide awake now, it felt futile to simply hope that would go away."Sasuke?" He called out questioningly.

Sasuke was always a light sleeper, through some level of paranoia that came with being a ninja or by nature, transversely he could easily fall back into that same light sleep by closing his eyes and laying dormant for a moment or two. Dark eyes slipped open as if having only blinked and focused a sleepy gaze on Konohamaru, finding no need or reason to be alarmed. After Konohamaru didn't speak for a few seconds, either unaware Sasuke was actually awake or some other cause for hesitation , Sasuke spoke. "What is it?"

Konohamaru looked up and brown eyes met the darker ones of the Uchiha "Oh, I just wanted to know if you were awake."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes with an annoyed suspicion, "Why are you awake, it's the middle of the night." His voice was weak and lazy, showing just how late it really was.

"I don't know, I can't get back to sleep." Konohamaru whispered back, his voice queuing downward almost as if he was embarrassed of the fact.

The one night they got to sleep together again and Konohamaru suddenly becomes an insomniac, 'It figures.' Sasuke closed his eyes, attempting to inquire all the reasons why Konohamaru would be waking up in the middle of the night, he knew him well enough. "What are you thinking about?" He came to that conclusion quickly, his mind couldn't find anything more probable.

"Nothing." The boy said, honestly.

"Was it a dream or something?" Sasuke asked, a small yawn disrupting his still form.

"No." Konohamaru shook his head lightly, ruffling the spiky brown strands underneath Sasuke's chin into small tangles.

"..." Sasuke sighed, he didn't have the will for this tonight.

"Sorry." Konohamaru apologized, beginning to feel guilty about waking Sasuke up. Still, he couldn't shake that strange feeling in his chest, it was a heat, a warmth that seemed to spread through his blood through out the rest of his body until he began to sweat a little .

Sasuke peaked open eye open and glanced down on Konohamaru, who's head was resting against his chest, simply staring with half-lidded eyes into the fabric. '...Konohamaru...' Sasuke drew his hand up Konohamaru's back and slipped them into the messy brown strands, unbound as they were usually partly held back by his usual goggles or forehead protector. Gently petting his head. Sasuke's eyes were clinched shut tensely and his body was taunt and unrelaxed, Konohamaru could even feel it.

"You don't have to do that." Konohamaru said, his voice holding an apathetic tone to it. He was well aware that Sasuke wasn't the type to do things like this, little affections and comforts. But admittedly he liked it when Sasuke forced himself to do things like this, it was reassuring in a way that the introverted Uchiha would go to such a length to do something so foreign to his nature and demeanor.

Sasuke didn't respond, and he had hoped Konohamaru wouldn't have either, it would have made this a whole lot easier. "..." As awkward as this was for him, he still persisted despite how much he wanted just to stop now, his hands drifting through the unruly strands of hair and rubbling Konohamaru messagingly.

Konohamaru smiled to himself at the soothing motion being inflicted on him, Sasuke reminded him of Naruto a little. "Just like Nii-chan." He thought aloud.

Sasuke looked down at him fully, well aware of what he called Naruto and his relationship with their teammates. "Naruto? What do you mean I'm just like Naruto?" He clearly took offense to the implication.

'Oh, did I say that out loud?' Konohamaru paused for a moment, scrambling for an answer. "Uh, Nothing, Nothing at all." Konohamaru closed his eyes and hugged Sasuke tighter, his mind drifting back to how Naruto visited him when he was depressed and refused to leave until he'd deemed the boy alright. Despite how awkward and uncomfortable as it was for the both of them.

"Are you seriously comparing me to that dobe?" He said with distaste.

"What's wrong with Naruto?" Konohamaru asked. He didn't have a complete understanding of the relationship the two carried, just of the general contempt. "He's really cool."

"Tch. That idiot." Sasuke's hand took of it's own accord, messaging through the soft brunet hair sub-consciously as he grew closer and closer to sleep.

"He's not." Konohamaru contradicted, "I wanna be like him." In part, he wanted to be, he wanted to be like Sasuke too. They both were so strong, and had uncompromising wills, they were brave, they never got scared or backed down. Sasuke was so smart and Naruto had ambition that even Konohamaru was jealous of, both of them were brilliant in battle. Naruto had a determination strong enough to help people when they needed it, and Sasuke was infinitely cunning enough to do it. 'They are so cool.'

Sasuke simply closed his eyes again and lay almost dormant, the contempt fading away slowly to be replaced by the calm of tiredness. "Whatever."

Konohamaru pushed himself a little closer to Sasuke despite how hot he was underneath the covers, moving closer to the awaiting body. And only when he pressed himself fully against Sasuke did he realize something, did he realize why he was so hot. He opened his eyes, blushing heavily when he felt his newly grown erection pressing against Sasuke's stomach.

When Sasuke noticed this he couldn't help but realize why the boy was awake in the middle of the night. Konohamaru's heart was pounding, and his skin was warm, nearly hot with the beginnings of sweat. The older boy looked down, his eyes taking in Konohamaru's flushed cheeks and nervous eyes full of embarrassment at not realizing his situation sooner, Konohamaru wasn't as awake or alert as he seemed. "Hn..." Sasuke smirked with mild amusement.

"I, uh, didn't-!" Konohamaru let out a startled, almost squeaking noise that made him sound far below his age when he felt Sasuke's hand drift between them and cuff his member through his pants. "Uhn..." The small body flinched against the larger form as Sasuke's fingers drifted skillfully along the sensitive area, his index finger trailing along the bottom of Konohamaru's erection tented against the restrictive fabric, his thumb pressing softly against his balls before his whole hand compressed lightly against Konohamaru's contained need.

"Uha!" Konohamaru clinched his eyes shut and his body jumped lightly at the unexpected constriction, but Sasuke's strong arm wrapped firmly around his back in a soft embrace kept him in place. Sasuke slipped his hand into the waist band of Konohamaru's pants and pulled them down with soft tugs, stopping just far enough to release his almost painfully hard erection, full from the older boy's teasing.

Sasuke's hand brushed over the small cock, glistening with pre-cum slowly spreading over the head. He smirked lightly when he saw Konohamaru wincing from the touch, the smaller boy could barely contain himself. 'Alright Konohamaru.' He decided to give him what he wanted, Sasuke slipped his arm from around Konohamaru's back and tossed the concealing covers off of them.

"Huh?" Konohamaru peeked his eyes open and watched Sasuke shift around beside him, the blush spread across his cheeks grew redder as he waited there, completely exposed.

Sasuke repositioned himself so that he was laying on his side, Konohamaru's erection rested before his mouth, and Konohamaru found himself staring over at Sasuke's crotch, shielded by the fabric of his shorts. "Sasuke?" He looked down at him with clear uncertainty on what he was suppose to do next.

"Just pay attention." Sasuke told him, the arrogant smirk on his face still didn't fade in the slightest. He wrapped his arms around Konohamaru's waist and pulled him on to his knees above himself, Sasuke looking up at the awaiting erection in front of his face possessively. Konohamaru, resting on his hands and knees above the older boy, simply followed Sasuke's lead, lowering himself on to his elbows and began unzipping the older boy's shorts. Reaching into the small opening and retrieving the considerably larger cock waiting for him.

Instinctively he cradled the hard length in both hands and lowered his head, taking in as much of Sasuke as he could and sucking diligently. "...uh..." Sasuke let out a small breath, letting his eyes fall closed as he lifted his head slightly, running his tongue along he bottom of Konohamaru's smaller cock softly. He smile inwardly when he felt the member twitch from tense anticipation, leaving a wet trail behind as he moved upward and slid his tongue along Konohamaru's balls and persisted onward.

"S-sasuke!" Konohamaru's whole body clinched, pulling back slightly with a gasping breath. An entirely different flush came to his cheeks this time, and with his breathing growing harsher, Konohamaru enveloped Sasuke's member into his mouth again, sucking harder with a new found anxious energy coursing from Sasuke's administrations.

Sasuke slid his tongue along the back of Konohamaru's balls, moving with sensitive, stroking licks between his legs and finally pressed his tongue against the ring muscles of Konohamaru's entrance. He could feel Konohamaru twitch softly against him, 'He's too tense...' Sasuke closed his eyes and began swirling his tongue around the hole, the tip taking light, feather soft touches.

Konohamaru moaned, sending vibrations along Sasuke's length, he had to force himself to keep from bitting down. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes, running his tongue over the head of Sasuke's cock in mimic to what had been done on him previous times. "Uhnn!" Konohamaru drew in a sharp breath when he felt the wet heat of Sasuke's tongue pushing into his body. "S-Sasuke..." Konohamaru moaned loudly, unable to draw the concentration to do anything more then take hard, needy licks across the head of Sasuke's member.

Sasuke's cheeks grew their own flush when he felt Konohamaru slip both of his index fingers into his own entrance and thrust into him without control. His tongue rubbed against the sensitive inner muscles, pushing and prodding at places, licking and teasing others with the tip of his tongue.

"Uhaaaa!" Konohamaru dropped his head on to Sasuke's leg and moaned loudly as one last movement pushed him to his limit. He came, his seed spurting from his cock in small amounts on to Sasuke's chest. "..." Finally his body relaxed and his muscles untensed, falling in a sloppy mass on to Sasuke's chest. And he started again, running his tongue over the base of Sasuke's cock with those same weak licks, wrapping his mouth around it, sucking softly. His warm, panting breaths washing over the soft flesh in soft traces.

"..." Sasuke cringed, a sharp spasm ran through his body, only a soft grunt sipped from his mouth as his cock twitched and cum streamed out of the sensitive flesh. "Kono...hamaru..."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The next time Konohamaru was conscious was when the warmth of sunlight fell on to his face, causing his eyes to stir under the lids and finally open. "Uha..." He welcomed the awakening now, yawning without inhibition before he removed one of his arm from around Sasuke's body and rubbed his eyes. Feeling his awareness returning slower then the previous time, he lifted his head from Sasuke's chest and looked up. "Sasuke?" He was almost surprised to see Sasuke laying marginally awake, looking down at him with a half awake expression."How long have you been awake?"

"Not long." Sasuke told him, he generally got up before Konohamaru, only this time he decided not to move, he was content to lay on his side and hold the boy softly underneath the covers.

Konohamaru smiled lightly when he felt the embrace around him, tucking his head back underneath Sasuke's chin. "Did you-" Out of nowhere Konohamaru froze, his voice breaking into grunting stutters that sounded as if his throat was suddenly sealed shut. His eyes widened in a fearful look, but he didn't move, or speak.

"Konohamaru?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously, he grabbed Konohamaru by the shoulders and pushed him on to his back, looking over him with quick glances. He quickly came to a conclusion. 'Damnit!' His senses screamed at him as he sprang off of the bed and landed on his feet beside it, finding himself coming almost face to face to the much taller form of his father, this body riddled with Sharingan eyes in unnatural places. It was the Sharingan demon, again.

How the hell did this thing keep getting in with out him noticing?

"You!" Sasuke took a step froward, but got no farther before a pressing pain coursed through his head. It didn't last no more then a second, just barely enough time for him to register it. "What...?" He looked around frantically, finding his surroundings completely different. 'How...' He was surrounded in darkness, a large empty space that he felt like stretched endlessly. Then suddenly a raging fire erupted around him like an explosion. "Uha!" He stumbled backwards, lifting his arm over his face to shield it from the heat as the flames grew around him. The air seemed to incinerate around him, becoming nothing but pure heat, leaving him gasping to catch his breath. "Ahhaaaaaaa!"

'Sasuke...Sasuke!' Konohamaru screamed, but no matter how hard he tried to force it, no words would come out of his mouth. He couldn't move, his muscles were locked painfully in place, his body so tense that he could hardly take a breath. 'Sasuke!' His fearful eyes watched as Sasuke stumbled around and screamed in pain at something that didn't seem to be there. While some almost completely human in form demon stood there and watched with a hauntingly blank look. "..." He had to move, cry out something! "Sa..." Konohamaru clinched his eyes shut, his Chakra building, pooling in his torso, growing there until it radiated around his body. " Sa..." It erupted around him in a golden aura, holding enough force to over load his senses and write out the Genjutsu. "Sasuke!"

Konohamaru's voice rang in his ears like an alarm, pulling him out of a loss of consciousness. "!" Sasuke clinched his hands into tight fist, and with a loud grunt, a burst of ice erupted around his body, a chrysalis protectively encaging him that loudly clattered as other structures protruded roughly out of it with long, hard spike made with solid ice. One of the spikes jabbed into the Sharingan Demon's chest, making it stumble back and release it's jutsu. 'Damn...' Shortly after words the spiked shell shattered and fell to the ground around him.

"!" The demon holding the image of his father took a small stride backwards defensively as an angry Konohamaru leapt at it, the Chakra pouring through every muscle in his body boosting his strength substantially. "Bastard." Konohamaru sprang into the air and threw a hard punch at it's head, but with it's longer reach it easily reached out past his fist and grabbed Konohamaru painfully by the face, letting the eye in it's palm do the rest. "Uh...No..." Konohamaru fell lifelessly from it's grip and fell to the ground, his unconscious mind entangled in the Sharingan.

"Let him alone!" Sasuke clasped his hand together, performing a quick stream of hand seals. "Reverse Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" In haling a deep breath, Sasuke brew out a burst of frigid, blue flame that swept outward like smoke blown by harsh winds.

"Uchiha." The demon leapt to the right in front of the bed evasively, though it wasn't fast enough to get away completely. It's left leg was enveloped by the quickly propagating flames, and nearly instantaneously it was frozen completely to the bone. No ice surrounded it, just a small layer of frost covering lifeless blue skin. Seemingly uneffected in terms of pain by it, the Sharingan demon was at lest slowed down.

Apparently much to slow to attempt anything physical, though it never attempted anything physical anyway.

In blur of skilful speed, Sasuke appeared behind the demon , drawing his left arm back in a form similar to throwing a punch. 'Nagamaki.' A swirl of cold winds appeared around his drawn back arm, and from his clinched fist grew a long rod, made of solid ice as most of his weapons were. It formed quickly, like water filling a container the blade of a sword finishing off the tip of the spear. With a grunt he thrust the bladed rod froward, jabbing it in it's back causing the demon to stumble froward. It quickly wiped around to face the youngest Uchiha.

"Sasuke Uchiha!" The demon yelled angrily, thrust it's hand froward towards the boy who was just about to move again.

"!" Sasuke froze, falling weakly to his knees as the pain from before flared up again, only it didn't fade away this time. 'What...what is this?' Sasuke let out a pained groan, clinching his chest tightly where the pain localized. He felt like he was being torn apart from the inside, and a numbing, throbbing pain washed over his body in waves like ripples in water. "..." He couldn't even conjure up enough of himself to scream... And that's when he saw it, something pried to the surface and pushed halfway out of chest.

It was an eye, A Sharingan eye.

'No...No!' Sasuke's narrowed eyes widened, it was real! It really happened! 'No!' Sasuke began clawing at it with both hands, trying to rip it out with a fearful desperation. But he couldn't seem to, the eye began glowing the infamous red of the Uchiha blood line. 'Noo...' The words in his head slurried incoherently and his vision blurred. His head was spinning in a horrible dizziness, a sickness washed over him, and finally, the last thing he felt was a pull. Something was being pulled, he would have dismissed it as his Chakra being siphoned if he hadn't recognize the indescribable feeling of something deeper with him was being effected. Like his soul was-

'...' Sasuke's mind went blank as he finally passed out.

Konohamaru didn't have the pleasure of passing out, though laying completely dormant enough to seem asleep, his mind was as active as it ever was. This tormenting pain in his mind head felt like something piercing was being driven through his head. 'Sa...Sasuke.' He weakly called out pleadingly, hoping, begging that Sasuke would save him some how. How was he suppose to stop this? How could he possibly get out of something like this. 'Uhaaaaa!'

'Ko...'

Konohamaru could hear him, something distant, weak in his mind. And he immediately recognized it, even in the barest resses of consciousness he'd know that feeling any where. A link, a connection with none other then Sasuke, he'd felt it many times before. 'Sa-Sasuke!' Konohamaru heard it, he felt it, and he cringed to it for his life. 'It...It hurts...'

Sasuke's eyes diluted slowly into a blood red beneath the closed eye lids. 'Ko...Kono...'

The voice was weak and in pain, barely coherent. Konohamaru, the weaker one in the connection, could feel something else there, another presence just like when he felt Itachi, it was the Sharingan demon. 'Sasuke...No...'

'Kono...Konohamaru!' Sasuke's voice screamed into his mind, it was like a jolt of energy that forcibly knocked the smaller boy from the jutsu.

With a gasping breath, Konohamaru bolted up right, eyes wide, his body holding a glistening sheen of sweat. "Sasuke!" he scrambled on to his knees and turned around to find the demon in question mounted atop an unconscious Sasuke doing who knew what to him. "Leave him alone!" Konohamaru blindly ran at the demon without thought, it was an impulse, pure instinct. "Get off of him!" Konohamaru dived at it, but he found his body met no resistance and he tumbled right over Sasuke, landing hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. "Uhf!" Konohamaru fell directly beside his body, completely startled he looked back to find nothing there. "It...It disappeared?"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"So, is he gonna be ok?" Konohamaru felt uneasily this time in Neji's study, staring at Sasuke's almost lifeless from resting on Neji's bed. He sat faithfully on the ground beside Sasuke, his legs crossed and his arms folded, an almost concentrated expression on his face when he watched the older boy.

Neji sat down at his desk which was familiarly scattered in an chaotic organization with books and papers as usual. "Don't worry about him, he'll be fine." Neji picked up his place in the texts he studied after he'd examined Sasuke and began working again, on what, it wasn't too clear, only Neji understood.

"Really?" Konohamaru didn't look as relieved as he usually would have, the thoughtful, somewhat concentrated expression didn't lighten. He still retained an uncharacteristic seriousness.

Neji couldn't help but notice this. "Konohamaru, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm ok." He told him, his voice sounding somewhat distracted.

"So what's wrong then?" Neji could honestly say this was the most serious he'd seen Konohamaru look outside of a fight. "You look like your thinking about something."

"Yeah, I guess..."

"What is it?"

"..." Konohamaru didn't respond immediately, almost as if debating if he wished to divulge his thoughts. After almost full moment he seemed to decide for it, and slowly turned his eyes to Neji. "Neji...I couldn't help at all."

Neji glanced over his shoulder and looked at the boy fully. "What? Your feeling guilty about what happened to Sasuke?"

"Not really..." Konohamaru shook his head. "It was just that I couldn't even lay a hand on the demon..." He couldn't do anything, as much training as he'd been doing here, as many strides and he'd made, he'd been beaten so easily. Besides, he had his own demon to worry about, if he couldn't touch Sasuke's, a much slower demon as he noticed, how was he gonna fight Fear?

"Don't be so hard on yourself, it happens." Neji reassured him.

Konohamaru dropped his head in defeat. "Yeah, it happens..." The boy sighed to himself, slowly standing to his feet. "Take good care of Sasuke Neji." He gave one last look back to the sleeping Sasuke before he turned to leave.

! - ! - !

From the deathly silent main hall, Konohamaru peeked his head into the kitchen, having already searched through out the rest of the building and finding it mostly empty.

He found Iruka, sitting at the kitchen table, now littered with scrap paper, some crumpled into discarded balls, some just pushed aside. In his hand was a worn down pencil, it was clear that he was practicing, and it wasn't going well. Though it was hard to notice the trembling in his hands, they were there and they seemed to effect everything. His face held an odd frustration to it, it wasn't clear if he as annoyed at himself or not feeling anything at all anymore. No emotion Iruka tried to convey generally came out right anymore, it was like everything in his head was mixed up and one gesture became crossed with a number of other things. When ever he tried to convey an emotion he just got so confused that he either gave up or broke down.

"Iruka..." Konohamaru sat down across the table from Iruka, watching the man who looked up at him in a way the boy took as acknowledgingly. "Are you alright?" Iruka didn't respond, as usual. He hadn't been able to speak for about a month now, but at lest he was adapting. His confused mind was beginning to defragment, or he was just finding way around it. Konohamaru picked up one of the discarded papers and looked over it, '?' it was covered in incoherent lines and marks, all of them were. 'Oh man, he still can't write huh...'

Konohamaru lifted his elbows to the table and rested his head in his hands, looking at Iruka try over and over again to write something he could himself understand without success. If there was anyone among them that really was just about helpless now it was Iruka. Over the course of time since it happened his strength was deteriorating, his slept more and more, he had even gotten paler. "Iruka...are you ok?" He asked, he was getting worried.

Iruka looked up at him, his face a blank slate but his eyes, his eyes spoke. Konohamaru could just read the look, a calm, slightly annoyed narrowing, he'd learned to read them as clearly as he could have heard the man saying stop worrying, I'm fine. "Just saying. You don't look so good."

Iruka looked back down at the paper and continued the action almost mechanically in nature, something that had made him breakdown and cry at one period of time was being done almost without any emotion at all. Though it was clear he was dishartened every time he wrote a letter and when he looked at it there was nothing more then meaningless lines.

Konohamaru could do nothing more then watch this with an admiration, Iruka was not getting better, he was getting worse, they could see it, and he clearly knew it. But yet he persisted, he kept practicing, he kept trying to find away around it. 'If Iruka can be like this without losing it, I can get stronger.' He nodded decidedly, pushing himself out of the chair and standing up firmly.

"..." Iruka didn't even seem to take notice of him, leaving it unsure the if the man was paying attention or not.

"I'm sorry but I have to leave for a while Iruka." Konohamaru told him. "I don't wanna leave with you like this, but I have too. I'm the assistant manger." He had to do this more then ever now that Iruka was out of commission, as the assistant manger it was his duty to help the manager anyway he could. And right now that meant picking up the work load. "Bye..."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Kid, what the hell are you doing here?" Kisame folded his arms and leaned against the open doorway, gazing out suspiciously beyond the boy to make sure no one else was around to see him.

Konohamaru swallowed hard, looking up with as stern a face as he could. "Boss, I want you to train me." He said, his hands clinched tightly at his side, standing up strait.

Kisame's eye brown raised questioningly, at first glance he normally would have told Konohamaru go back, he didn't feel like dealing with him. But when he saw his face, when he looked down into his eyes, saw him trying to stand taller then he was, he knew Konohamaru was completely serious. At times he knew Konohamaru could be subserviently obedient, when he was as serious enough he exhibited patience that Kisame himself barely had. 'Hmm...' Kisame always took a fascinated interest to Konohamaru's will, his persistence, his determination, how much his mind and body would truly take.

A fierce smirk spread across the man's face as he looked over Konohamaru. "Really, eh?" Kisame rested his hands on his waist and lent down just enough to bring his face closer to the smaller boy's, looking on intimidating form about his body . "I won't take it easy on you."

Konohamaru refrain from taking in a deep breath nodded. Kisame seemed annoyed, this would be harder then usual.

Kisame stood up strait and looked over the boy scrutinizingly, he couldn't help but think that something must have happened back at SDI, why else would he show up here like this. "Fine, we'll start tomorrow."

"Uh? Tomorrow!" Konohamaru dropped his shoulders and looked at the man with an angry disappointed. "Why?"

"I just had to kill 16 guys that just wouldn't stay dead, I don't feel like it."

"Wha..uha.." Konohamaru began stumbling around with his words, it wasn't the response he was expecting he didn't know what he was suppose to say to that. "Well, I...uha..." He grew nervous with an awkward uneasiness, he hated it when Kisame or Itachi talked about what they did, it always made him feel guilty.

Kisame rolled his eyes. "Damn, your too sensitive." As much as he wanted to toughen Konohamaru up, and as much as he was annoyed by it, he rather liked Konohamaru's almost innocent sensitivity to these things.It was amusing at times, and refreshing to see in his line of work. It was like teaching a pet, dogs in specific, Konohamaru was as loyal as any dog. Though he wondered how much he could take, when you broke a dog, they still loved you, humans on the other hand... It would be interesting to find out. "Tomorrow, 4 am, sharp."

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	29. Chapter 29Reoccurring

Chapter 29: Reoccurring

It was bright today, the sun high enough over the horizon to show off it's full form before it ascended into the blanket of scattered white clouds. Golden rays pored through every window, making the building a radiant bright.

Naruto walked down the main hall that was illuminated to high contrast with sunlight pouring through every open door, his chest bare, cover in only a pair of white night pants he'd just slept in. Naruto slipped his arms behind his head and opened his mouth wide with a deep yawn. 'I wonder where Gaara is?' It was his natural first thought, having found the stoic boy gone in the middle of the night. Which didn't surprise him...

! - ! - !

"Mmm..."

Naruto slowly lifted his left hand, letting it fall lazily on his face over his right eye, and he rubbed it softly. His mind drifting back into conscious out of somehow managing to slip out of his sleep. 'What time is it...' Naruto opened his eyes, blurry vision sharpening to the moon lit darkness of the room. 'It's gotta be like midnight...' He thought sleepily, staring up with half lidded eyes at the shadows on the ceiling radiating from the darkness of night. 'Hnnn...' Naruto slowly rolled over on to his side and found himself face to face with a sleeping Gaara.

Gaara's eyes opened in that same surreal way, alert and focused as if he hadn't been asleep at all, just as always. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was early, the sky was dark, still filled with stars not yet dulled by the sun's rays. It was cool, though he knew that would change by the time the sun was well into the sky, not that it mattered now. The trees of the surrounded forest cast deep shadows, ones that Konohamaru couldn't hope to see past, the only light offered to him was the moon that sank low in the horizon, more of a backdrop through the trees behind him then anything else. It would be full in a day or two, every time he looked at it he couldn't help thinking that small fact and inanely of Kiba.

The boy sat under one of the large trees that stretched high into the darkness beyond sight, his legs crossed and his arms folded, eyes half lidded and attempting to stay conscious.

"Hey, wake up!"

"!" Konohamaru flinched and sprang to his feet at the sudden and deep voice that rang in his ears from above. He turned around just in time to see the man fall from the darkness above and land with a type of grace that only came with strength. "Boss, you scared me!"

"Obviously." Kisame folded his arms and looked over every inch of the sleepy boy standing half alert before him. "We need to work on that." He looked on familiarly as Konohamaru shook his head, bringing himself into some since of awareness, and stood up strait, looked at the older man at complete attention. He had to give to Konohamaru, he was determined, even at 4 in the morning. He didn't complain at all about the time, which when thinking of it, a thoughtful expression came to Kisame's face. "You know...why don't we start at 4:30..." Kisame turned around, staring upward absentmindedly at the surrounding trees, rubbing the back of his head uneasily. "Are you...hungry...at all?"

Konohamaru smiled, his hands falling to his stomach with an excited laugh. "Yeah!"

! - ! - !

Konohamaru sat mounted on a stool in the kitchen in front of the sink, staring anxiously at Kisame's back, watching the man at the stove intently. The soft aroma that filled the room teased at his sense of smell, the familiar sounds of a sizzling pan, the boiling of contents inside of a pot made his mouth water. After waking up at 3:30 in the morning to make it to this one spot in time, he never realized how hungry he was, the only feeling that overdid his fatigue and sleepiness was the growling of his stomach.

Each movement Kisame made to manipulated the substances stirred the anxiousness and hunger within Konohamaru even more, his eyes followed Kisame's actions in a hypnotized manner. The only person who could draw such a reaction from him was Iruka, Iruka always somehow woke up before he did, and on Konohamaru's habitual trip down the main hall was met with the scent of food. It was kinda like that right now, Kisame had manged to wake up before him just as Iruka did, and already the scent of food was making him impatient.

He was always happy with Kisame, Kisame challenged him in every possible way, from his patience to his nerve. 'Kisame...' It was kinda like how Iruka was, being his teacher and all, and manager who trained him in the ways of business. Iruka gave him chances Sasuke wouldn't dare, he allowed Konohamaru to take risks that were by all means that were foolish and dangerous, but he always protected Konohamaru when he needed it even if they weren't on the same team. Kisame was like that a little bit, only on a much more... discarding scale, he didn't care what kind of dangerous endeavor the boy took, or if he got hurt sometimes. But somehow he did manage to help him at those rare times he really and truly needed it.

Konohamaru's mind drifted farther and farther from his stomach and more and onto Kisame and Iruka. Iruka was always nice, and patience and protective. Kisame always messed with him and had fun doing it too, the times he actually wanted to deal with the boy, and he'd kill anyone who messed with Konohamaru. They were so different...but...still... he-

"What the hell's whit that stupid look on your face?"

Konohamaru flinched with a small jump, almost making him lose balance and fall out of the chair. Konohamaru grabbed on to the seat to catch himself and looked up at the man standing over him, and smiled nervously with a small bit of embarrassment. "Nothing, just thinking."

Kisame rolled his eyes, darkness from the window above the sink edging at his vision, the hell if he was thinking, he probably was falling asleep. "That's a first."

"Are you calling me stupid!" Konohamaru growled angrily, narrowed his eyes.

"Damn right."

"Hey!"

! -! - !

! -! - !

It was bright today, the sun high enough over the horizon to show off it's full form before it ascended into the blanket of scattered white clouds. Golden rays pored through every window, making the building a radiant bright.

Naruto walked down the main hall that was illuminated to high contrast with sunlight pouring through every open door, his chest bare, cover in only a pair of white night pants he'd just slept in. Naruto slipped his arms behind his head and opened his mouth wide with a deep yawn. 'I wonder where Gaara is?' It was his natural first thought, having found the stoic boy gone in the middle of the night. Which didn't surprise him...

Naruto stopped, stretching his arms high above his head as he passed Kiba's room. 'That never happened before.' He thought. 'He never woke up in the middle of night before...' When Gaara went to sleep he generally stayed asleep unless there was something that warranted waking up, except for that one time when he was possessed by a demon. and if there was something like that he would have woken up too, right?

! - ! - !

"Mmm..."

Naruto slowly lifted his left hand, letting it fall lazily on his face over his right eye, and he rubbed it softly. His mind drifting back into conscious out of somehow managing to slip out of his sleep. 'What time is it...' Naruto opened his eyes, blurry vision sharpening to the moon lit darkness of the room. 'It's gotta be like midnight...' He thought sleepily, staring up with half lidded eyes at the shadows on the ceiling radiating from the darkness of night. 'Hnnn...' Naruto slowly rolled over on to his side and found himself face to face with a sleeping Gaara.

Gaara's eyes opened in that same surreal way, alert and focused as if he hadn't been asleep at all, just as always. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Naruto burred his hands into the messy golden strands of hair, scratching his head lightly. "Nah...just woke up I guess." He said, before curling up beside the red head and closing his eyes.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

'Where did he go...' Sasuke slipped his legs over the side of the empty bed and pushed himself to his feet. The younger Uchiha looked around his room as if this time he expected to see the boy where all others surveying he'd been taken since he awakened didn't. Konohamaru never woke up this early, only when he had to go on a mission without him, those rare times his particular brand of skills, though Sasuke wasn't completely sure what they were, were needed, leaving with Kiba or Neji. Or training, those even rarer times Konohamaru was awake early and was motivated by something to do it.

Sasuke ran his hand softly over his face and brushed away the half ruffled hair that drifted over his eyes. 'Mission, that's probably it.' He thought.

It was warm through out the building, so Sasuke had no problem venturing out into the main hall in nothing besides his boxers. He drifted down the sun lit corridor, glancing around curiously, almost pacing down the trail anxiously. He never knew the cause but he always became uneasy when Konohamaru went off on assignment with out him like this. The best he could do now was start on the paper work...if Konohamaru had indeed gone on a mission. The thought graced his mind that Konohamaru could just be in his room.

Sasuke set his course for the basement, but his ears were saluted with the sounds of voices and movement in the kitchen as he passed by, so he naturally took a detour. Iruka was there, sitting with an almost boredom at the wooden table, staring down at a pencil in his hand. Gaara was sitting opposite of him, his eyes fixed on the man who didn't seem to notice him, but Iruka never seemed to notice anyone, as if he was trapped in his own little world that was devoid of everything. And of course Kakashi was there, leaning against the wall behind Iruka with the familiar book in hand, but his attention was divided between the text and the man he was observing thoughtfully.

"Kakashi." Sasuke took another short glance at Iruka, the man seemed to draw attention to himself without doing anything to warrant it. "Did you happen to send Konohamaru on a mission?"

"No." Kakashi's visible eye slowly shifted over to Sasuke. "Why? Worried about him?"

"Not really." Sasuke's eyes quickly drifted back into the inattentive, discarding look he naturally assumed at the mention of it. "Just wondering where he went."

Iruka's eyes shifted from the almost bored look to a small thoughtfulness as he stared at the object in his hand. "..."

"He's probably in his room." Kakashi offered simply. "Knowing him he's training, nothing to be worried about."

A streak of annoyment rose audibly in Sasuke's voice. "I'm not worried."

"He's not down there." Gaara spoke up, his usually silent voice was always unexpected when he intervened in a conversation. The stoic boy went into farther detail before anyone had to ask him any questions. "I was looking for Naruto before I came here, neither of them were down there."

Sasuke folded his arms and glanced up at the ceiling, distracted in contemplation for a small second. "I'm sure he's around here some where then."

And that's when it hit Iruka, wisdom came suddenly. His eyes lit up in a reaction that was completely foreign to him in the days as of late, he realized something, and it made him excited in the wrong way for the wrong reason. "..." Iruka looked up at Sasuke, waving his hands in a manner that seemed to mean stop or wait.

"Huh? What?" Sasuke grew a little confused, this was the first time Iruka had done something like this since he stopped talking. "What is it?"

Iruka's gaze shifted around nervously, a confused expression grew on his face, looking down at the ground like a child trying to solve a math problem by counting on his fingers. Then something inspired grew visibly on his features as he figured it out.

"Is it about Konohamaru?" Kakashi pushed himself off the wall and watched the man intently. A small excitement was growing slowly inside of him when he watched Iruka, he was trying, he was showing something.

Iruka's face lit up even farther as he nodded, as if he wanted to smile but was just short. But he wasn't so happy trying to convey the next part, mainly since he didn't know how, it only came out as a confusing series of gestures.

'?' Sasuke's head tilted to the side questioningly, what the hell was he suppose to make of this? 'Wha...' He looked to Gaara for some kind of hint, since Gaara spent so much time with Iruka, he would know better. Unfortunately Gaara gave him no clue, since he didn't know himself.

Iruka clasped his hand across his face with a small sigh, this wasn't working. It was like being trapped in a cell in the dark, he should have been able to do this... An angrily frustrated expression crossing his silent face as it usually did when he attempted to convey something and failed.

Kakashi immediately moved in, resting his hands on to Iruka's shoulders and forcing the man to looking up at him. "No, No. Your doing well." Kakashi reassured him. "Don't give up now." Iruka lifted his head, a small hint of sadness in his expression this time. Kakashi slipped his hand under Iruka's chin and lifted his head, locking their eyes together. "I know it's hard, but don't give up." It was the last thing he offered before slipping his hands from Iruka's shoulders and backing away.

"..." Iruka stared down at the ground for a few seconds, before letting his eyes drifted up to Sasuke. It was like a being trapped in a cell with a window that was just out of ear shot... He began thinking again. And then it hit him, it was so obvious! Iruka's face illuminated again, pointing out the window.

"The window... Outside?" Gaara asked, gaining an affirming nod from the older man. "What is he doing? Is he training?"

Iruka paused for a moment...come to think of it, he didn't know what Konohamaru was doing. But what he did know...at lest knew now, that the boy didn't come back last night. He shook his head.

"Is he with Kiba, or Neji?" Sasuke asked, his voice peeking with interest. As reluctant as he would be to admit it, he was getting caught up in this a little, it did seem to be a definitive moment for Iruka.

"No, he isn't." Gaara shook his head.

"How do you know?"

"I went looking for Naruto with them too, Konohamaru wasn't there."

Kakashi turned his attention to the window Iruka had indicated, gazing out on to the open fields that stretched far beyond his vision could reach. He may have been reading too much into this but he knew Konohamaru never trained in open areas by himself, always in the forest. "Is he gone?"

A stratified look grew on Iruka's face and he nodded.

"And you don't know where?" Kakashi didn't think he could understand it if Iruka did.

Iruka shook his head in denial.

Sasuke's expression grew confused again, he really didn't know what to make of this now, How could Konohamaru just leave and not say anything? Should he be worried? He found himself looking around to the other three in the room for some kind of answer. It didn't matter really, he was already worried. "I'll be back."

In other words, he was going to go look for him.

! - ! - !

It was bright today, the sun high enough over the horizon to show off it's full form before it ascended into the blanket of scattered white clouds. Golden rays pored through every window, making the building a radiant bright.

Naruto walked down the main hall that was illuminated to high contrast with sunlight pouring through every open door, his chest bare, cover in only a pair of white night pants he'd just slept in. Naruto slipped his arms behind his head and opened his mouth wide with a deep yawn. 'I wonder where Gaara is?' It was his natural first thought, having found the stoic boy gone in the middle of the night. Which didn't surprise him...

Naruto stopped, stretching his arms high above his head as he passed Kiba's room. 'That never happened before.' He thought. 'He never woke up in the middle of night before...' When Gaara went to sleep he generally stayed asleep unless there was something that warranted waking up, except for that one time when he was possessed by a demon. And if there was something like that he would have woken up too, right?

'Hmm...' Naruto started to feel a little worried, where was Gaara anyway? 'Maybe he went with Iruka, I mean he has been with him a lot lately.' Naruto reasoned, pausing his decent down the hall and turning around towards the door to Iruka's office that resided at the opposite end of this corridor. 'Yeah, that's probably it, he hasn't been getting a lot of sleep anyway.'

It was silent, the only sounds were the faint ones of Naruto's foot steps as he back tracked across the carpeted floors to the door in question, why was it so quiet? 'Must have gone on a mission.' he thought to himself, dropping his hands from where they rested interlocked behind his head and reaching for the door knob. 'Everyone else is probably asleep.' With another sleepy yawn, Naruto pushed the door open... 'Wha...What the hell?' He found himself looking into the deep darkness of complete emptiness, an abyss, the growing sinking feeling in his stomach made him feel he was standing at the edge of a cliff, like the room wasn't even there!

Naruto slammed the door shut and leaned against it as if to hold the darkness back, his eyes shifting around nervously around the deathly quiet and sun brightened hall. "What the hell is going on here!"

! - ! - !

"Mmm..."

Naruto slowly lifted his left hand, letting it fall lazily on his face over his right eye, and he rubbed it softly. His mind drifting back into conscious out of somehow managing to slip out of his sleep. 'What time is it...' Naruto opened his eyes, blurry vision sharpening to the moon lit darkness of the room. 'It's gotta be like midnight...' He thought sleepily, staring up with half lidded eyes at the shadows on the ceiling radiating from the darkness of night. 'Hnnn...' Naruto slowly rolled over on to his side and found himself face to face with a sleeping Gaara.

Gaara's eyes opened in that same surreal way, alert and focused as if he hadn't been asleep at all, just as always. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Naruto burred his hands into the messy blond strands of hair, scratching his head lightly. "Nah...just woke up I guess." He said, before curling up beside the red head and closing his eyes. "I just had the weirdest dream." By now his voice was a mumbling whisper while his mind drifted farther and farther away from consciousness.

"Really?" Gaara's voice was completely alert, it amazed Naruto to no avail how Gaara could just be awake as if he hadn't gone to slept at all, how he didn't need it in the least.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The sun was high into the sky now, spares rays of golden light shining through the tops of trees and created a hazy light on the forest floor amongst the trunks of trees. '!' "Ugghhfff!" A loud, rough sound was torn from Konohamaru's throat as his body crashed chest first against the hard wood, the side of his face slamming painfully against the wood, and his body repelled off of the surface from the force, falling into a sitting position on the firm ground.

Kisame folded his arms and watched Konohamaru wrap his arms around the tree's trunk and use it to pull himself to his feet with a general indifference. "Your not listening." He said, his voice not hiding his annoyance one bit.

Konohamaru turned around, taking in deep breaths as he forced himself to stand up strait, rubbing his chin slightly. "I am Boss." Konohamaru said with a plead to understand, his voice retaining more calm then it usually would have if he wasn't under training, an obedience was clear in his tone.

Kisame let his arms fall loosely to his side, ready. "Your Chakra isn't spinning fast enough, it's not even balanced." Kisame told him, he could see it easily, 'Idiot, he's gonna hurt himself.' he snorted to himself. Konohamaru was able to to pour chakra into his muscles, in turn becoming temporarily stronger. However Konohamaru was unable to do that and spin his Chakra at the same time, so that's what Kisame worked on, giving Konohamaru strength and balance.

Konohamaru clinched his fist at his side, a strained look coming on to his face. His Chakra's rotation came to a complete halt, seeping back below the surface like water creeping through the cracks. And then he started over, bringing it fourth with all the fierceness of a raging storm, he grunted slightly as it pooled in his torso and began spinning like a whirlpool. Oddly enough, once it started to spin the watery aspect of it faded, it felt like a howling wind, raging around inside of him but some how leaving everything undisturbed.

"Faster." Kisame commanded, watching the boy carefully as he poured more of his chakra into the spin. A small drop of sweat was forced from beneath the cells of Konohamaru's skin and streamed down from his forehead. He could tell Konohamaru had been practicing, quite extensively it seemed to him, since he'd taught the technique to him a little over two years prior, he didn't expect the boy to be so good at it. Konohamaru wasn't overly smart, nor did he have a particularly abnormal amount of talent or potential, he never expected Konohamaru to reach this level so fast. 'Kid's not half bad.'

Konohamaru felt the chakra rubbing against the inward boundaries of his sides, brushing against his waist with bare traces, softly touching against his shoulders. He was surprised. 'Hey...I never put this much into it, it never got this far before with out hurting.' He thought to himself with a bright smile crossing his lips, he was filled with astonishment at this new achievement. He had begun to think it wasn't possible for him to do such a thing, now he wasn't sure if he could take it farther.

He was brought back to attention by a swift blow to the chest by Kisame's foot. "Pay attention!"

Konohamaru flinched and stood up strait, he had to resist the urge to returning his attention back to the chakra spinning inside of his body.

Kisame smirked slightly, something Konohamaru learned wasn't generally a good thing. "Alright, let's see if you can keep it up." Kisame gave Konohamaru no other words beside the vague warning before he lifted his foot and stomped down into Konohamaru's chest, hard.

Konohamaru slid backwards a good distance still half balanced on his feet before he finally fell on to his back. 'Damnit, Kisame says I have to pay more attention! Focus!' He clinched his chest where the impact had been forced on him and coughed, making sure he kept the rotation in check as he pushed himself to his feet. He was starting to lose count of how many times he'd been hit like that, maybe Kisame was right, he wasn't paying attention. Though he wasn't completely sure he hadn't been paying attention all the times he'd been given one of Kakashi's painful strikes, if Boss said he needed to focus the he 'd focus. Jaw set and eyes firm, Konohamaru bolted forward towards Kisame with fist clinched.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Sasuke had felt frustrations this strongly few times in his life, and as he stood in the middle of the only near by forest still left in Konoha that he knew to be Konohamaru's favorite training spot. He felt that frustration at it's full force now. The dark haired boy's eyes twitched in a growing aggravation, where was Konohamaru? He knew not to run off like this with out saying anything, they had demons after them.

Sasuke looked up towards the top of the trees, folding his arms across his chest. It was something he didn't understand, why Konohamaru liked this place so much. These trees were the only ones big enough, strong enough, deeply rooted enough to withstand that massive storm. And they truly were big, and tall. Konohamaru liked climbing them, it seemed to be one of his most common methods of his training, to try and climb up these massive trees with out using Chakra to jump, only with his hands. 'He never did make it yet...'

There was a small displacement of air around him as Neji and Kiba landed beside him. "Any luck?" Sasuke asked, hopefully, a foreign tone in his usually stoic voice.

Kiba shook his head, softly scratching his furry gray ear while the matching tail shifted around softly behind him. "Nope, hell I can't even find his trail." Kiba snorted. "Or his scent, it drops off two steps from his room."

"So...there's _no_ sign of him?" Sasuke asked, he found that hard to believe, but if Kiba couldn't find him...

"Well." Neji folded his arms and closed his eyes with the same thoughtful look he usually carried reappearing on his face. "It seems that Konohamaru dose not wish to be found."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke really was confused now, this didn't seem reasonable. "Are you sure?"

Neji didn't know the answer to the real question Sasuke wanted to ask, which was why would he do something like this, but he did know to a good degree of certainty the answer to the question he was asking. "Positive."

"Wait a minute." Sasuke grew a little more irritated, why was this so hard? "Are you saying Konohamaru managed to sneak away and cover his tracks well enough to evade Kiba?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Neji said bluntly, glancing around the area with lazy eyes. "He knows us well, you were incapacitated yesterday Sasuke, there was no way you could have seen him. I was working, Kiba was on a mission, and no one else knew to look for him."

"He apparently knew how to get around my nose." Kiba added, nodding in agreement. "Yup, he Doesn't want to be found. Iruka didn't happen to imply he was in any danger did he?"

Sasuke sighed, continuing to gaze upwards with a now defeated look on his face. He couldn't help but thinking how Konohamaru seemed to love heights, he liked going higher, as high as he could. And every time it rained he did so, looking at the sky as if he wanted to reach the clouds. "No, no he didn't."

"Then we can only wait."

"I guess so."

There was another small displacement of air before Gaara landed in front of Sasuke, his presence unknown to everyone beside Kiba's sense of smell. Sasuke was visibly flustered by the sudden appearance, but he managed not to flinch. "Did you find Konohamaru?" He asked, his voice making it unclear if he was concerned about it or not.

Sasuke shook his head, "No." He said, regaining himself. "Why?"

"I'm looking for Naruto." Gaara told him, looking around with slight interest. "Have you seen him."

The 3 boys replied negatively.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was bright today, the sun high enough over the horizon to show off it's full form before it ascended into the blanket of scattered white clouds. Golden rays pored through every window, making the building a radiant bright.

Naruto walked down the main hall that was illuminated to high contrast with sunlight pouring through every open door, his chest bare, cover in only a pair of white night pants he'd just slept in. Naruto slipped his arms behind his head and opened his mouth wide with a deep yawn. 'I wonder where Gaara is?' It was his natural first thought, having found the stoic boy gone in the middle of the night. Which didn't surprise him...

Naruto stopped, stretching his arms high above his head as he passed Kiba's room. 'That never happened before.' He thought. 'He never woke up in the middle of night before...' When Gaara went to sleep he generally stayed asleep unless there was something that warranted waking up, except for that one time when he was possessed by a demon. And if there was something like that he would have woken up too, right?

'Hmm...' Naruto started to feel a little worried, where was Gaara anyway? 'Maybe he went with Iruka, I mean he has been with him a lot lately.' Naruto reasoned, pausing his decent down the hall and turning around towards the door to Iruka's office that resided at the opposite end of this corridor. 'Yeah, that's probably it, he hasn't been getting a lot of sleep anyway.'

It was silent, the only sounds were the faint ones of Naruto's foot steps as he back tracked across the carpeted floors to the door in question, why was it so quiet? 'Must have gone on a mission.' he thought to himself, dropping his hands from where they rested interlocked behind his head and reaching for the door knob. 'Everyone else is probably asleep.' With another sleepy yawn, Naruto pushed the door open... 'Wha...What the hell?' He found himself looking into the deep darkness of complete emptiness, an abyss, the growing sinking feeling in his stomach made him feel he was standing at the edge of a cliff, like the room wasn't even there!

Naruto slammed the door shut and leaned against it as if to hold the darkness back, his eyes shifting around nervously around the deathly quiet and sun brightened hall. "What the hell is going on here!"

'This is insane!' Naruto bolted to the next door on the left side of the hallway and pushed it open, only to find the same empty darkness 'Where am I!' Naruto frantically checked the next door, and the next, and the next, frantically trailing down the hall and checking in rapid succession, one after another with the same result. Until finally he reached the final doors, the stairs leading to the library and the other to the basement. "Uh...Uh..."

Which door should he chose?

'Does it matter?' Naruto clinched his head stressfully and looked between his two options, every so often glancing over his shoulder to the blackness beyond the other doors. He also noticed the hallway wasn't nearly has bright as it was when those doors were closed. 'Wait...weren't those doors open? How did they get closed? ...Were they actually open?' Naruto clinched his head and cried out loudly, he could practically feel the hall growing darker and darker around him . "What is this?"

Naruto opened his eyes and found the doors fading in to the growing darkness. It was now or never, he had to pick a door. "What the hell does it matter!" Naruto screamed and lunged for one of the doors.

! - ! - !

"Mmm..."

Naruto slowly lifted his left hand, letting it fall lazily on his face over his right eye, and he rubbed it softly. His mind drifting back into conscious out of somehow managing to slip out of his sleep. 'What time is it...' Naruto opened his eyes, blurry vision sharpening to the moon lit darkness of the room. 'It's gotta be like midnight...' He thought sleepily, staring up with half lidded eyes at the shadows on the ceiling radiating from the darkness of night. 'Hnnn...' Naruto slowly rolled over on to his side and found himself face to face with a sleeping Gaara.

Gaara's eyes opened in that same surreal way, alert and focused as if he hadn't been asleep at all, just as always. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Naruto burred his hands into the messy blond strands of hair, scratching his head lightly. "Nah...just woke up I guess." He said, before curling up beside the red head and closing his eyes. "I just had the weirdest dream." By now his voice was a mumbling whisper while his mind drifted farther and farther away from consciousness.

"Really?" Gaara's voice was completely alert, it amazed Naruto to no avail how Gaara could just be awake as if he hadn't gone to slept at all, how he didn't need it in the least. "What was it about?"

"Huh?" Naruto peeked his eye open and looked up at the boy. "You really want to know?"

"You seemed to be acting pretty odd while you were sleeping." Gaara told him. "What was it?

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Konohamaru fell to his knees, clinching his chest with one hand hard enough to dig his fingers a considerable way into his skin, taking deep, starved swallows to reclaim what was knocked from his lungs. The pain at first was stunning, but it dulled, Kisame's attacks always dulled after the initial strike, fading in intensity with in a few seconds and changing into some throbbing pain that stuck with him for a lengthy duration. It was a routine that got harder to take with each repetition, but yet still Konohamaru rose to his feet as he always, this time rubbing away a smear of blood from a cut on his cheek and spitting out he red liquid pooling in his mouth.

It was like a dance, a set movement, no matter what attack he threw at Kisame the man always countered, or hit him first, and before Konohamaru knew it he was on the ground. And just like always he got up and tried again in, instep with the dance

Silently Konohamaru stiffened his jaw, fixed his eyes and checked the chakra in his chest. As long as it was still moving he was fine, he told himself, and silently he charged at Kisame standing in front of him. Only a grunt slipped from his mouth as he lept into the air with his fist drawn back and threw a punch at the man with all of his strength.

'Hmm...' Kisame easily grabbed Konohamaru's fist and held him captive above the ground by it. A small smirk crossed his face as he lifted the short male until they were face to face , leaving him hanging by the arm like bait, helpless. He watched Konohamaru's eyes tremble with surprise for a quick second before they grew steady and firm. Then boy moved, Konohamaru reeled his foot back and sent a hard kick at Kisame's chin. Kisame easily lifted his other hand and swatted it back down before flinging his body away.

'!' Konohamaru tumbled through the air in a disorienting manner, but the Chakra stirring in his chest gave him an unnatural balance that he used to bring him under control. Konohamaru landed side ways against a tree trunk and kicked off, propelling himself toward the man again. "Uff!" He didn't get chance to launch an attack, before he could, Kisame stepped to the side out of the way and let him fly stomach first into his outstretched fist.

His eyes unfocused a faint gasp slipped out of his open mouth in a futile attempt to reclaim the fleeting air. Flashes of light flared around his vision and a loud ringing sounded in his ears, with such a thunderous volume he couldn't even hear his heartbeat pounding wildly in his chest. "Unnaaaa..." Konohamaru's half dazed body slid weakly from Kisame's fist and fell into a sitting position on the ground.

It was coming to the point where Kisame was starting to lose interest in beating the boy like this, it had been an hour now. And as always to Kisame's amazement, Konohamaru's movements and recovery only diminished, but not his persistence. It was enough to make him want to take pitty on the boy and stop, but he didn't, and he wouldn't, because he had to see, he had to know just where Konohamaru's limits resided.

Kisame gave a small, light nudge to Konohamaru's chest with his foot and watched the boy fall over in a manner reminiscent to a stiff object, landing flat on his back with a grimace of pain. "..." Konohamaru bit down on his lip and slipped his hands behind him, trying to push himself up and not scream at the same time, he clearly struggled. 'Damn kid...' Kisame crouched down beside him, looking over him silently for a while, simply observing as Konohamaru narrowed his eyes and tried to sit up, but didn't get more then a few twitching inches before he fell back to the ground in failure each time. But he still tried. "You can't even stand up, why do you keep trying?"

"..." Konohamaru didn't respond, he never spoke. It was strange, after a while Konohamaru stopped talking, no sound passed by his lips beside a few uncontainable grunts. Had it been a normal situation he would have screamed and shouted all of his anger and frustrations out with blatant disregard, but for some reason when ever Kisame trained him, if training was what it could be called, like this, Konohamaru only spawned a look of concentration, as if that said it all. His eyes cringed slightly as he clinched the soft strands of grass around him as if trying to get a grip to gain leverage..

"Just stay down, it's not like your gonna win." Kisame fell into a sitting position and crossed his legs, last time two full minutes had passed before Konohamaru got to his feet, he wondered how long it would take this time. One minute and counting. "It's no point, your just wasting your time. Not like your gonna win."

Konohamaru grunted softly with physical exertion, giving up on sitting up, he alternatively rolled on to his stomach and stumbled to his feet in one quick burst. After that it was like catching his second wind, the hard part of standing was over, it was easy to move once he actually got up. With Chakra still stirring, Konohamaru dashed towards Kisame in stumbling, off balance steps and a rough out cry, throwing another somewhat weak punch at the sitting Kisame.

Kisame lifted his hand and blocked, just as soon Konohamaru drew his hand back before he could be caught by it and grabbed the man by his wrist. Then desperately the boy thrust his head past Kisame's arm with an attempted headbutt, pulling himself forward by Kisame's arms to add the momentum he no longer could conjure on his own will. 'Idiot.' Kisame tilted his neck to the side and watched while Konohamaru lost what little balance he had and missed completely, the boy's neck ended up coming to a stop on Kisame's shoulder. 'Gotcha.' Kisame quickly pressed his head against Konohamaru's and pinned it against his shoulder, trapping the boy.

This time he had a certainty Konohamaru would have shouted at him to be released if he wasn't so tired, breath lacking and energy withdrawn strenuously from his body. Konohamaru could only struggled weakly, failing around as best he could until he lost all leverage with the expenditure of his last bit of air, falling limp in Kisame's restraint. "..." He's legs gave way and he fell to his knees in Kisame's lap, gasping as if his lungs failed to inhale. 'Damn...'

"Just stop." Kisame said, "Your not getting out of this, just quit."

"..." He still gained no response, only heavy pants. Konohamaru's heart pounded with such a speed that Kisame could feel it against his own chest, the blood rushing through his body, heating his flesh enough to condense sweat on his skin.

Finally after a while Konohamaru's breaths slowed and his heart eased, and yet he still didn't move. "Give up?" Inquired Kisame expectantly.

The only response he got was Konohamaru's hand pushing against his broad chest and the boy's other fist coming at his face. He could have taken the blow easily, yet Konohamaru hadn't been able to touch him yet, he didn't want to tarnish that now. So he tilted his head to the right, dodging the blow and at he same time releasing Konohamaru's head from his grip. "Guess that's a no." He said with some amusement as Konohamaru stumbled backwards a safe distance.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

It was bright today, the sun high enough over the horizon to show off it's full form before it ascended into the blanket of scattered white clouds. Golden rays pored through every window, making the building a radiant bright.

Naruto walked down the main hall that was illuminated to high contrast with sunlight pouring through every open door, his chest bare, cover in only a pair of white night pants he'd just slept in. Naruto slipped his arms behind his head and opened his mouth wide with a deep yawn. 'I wonder where Gaara is?' It was his natural first thought, having found the stoic boy gone in the middle of the night. Which didn't surprise him...

Naruto stopped, stretching his arms high above his head as he passed Kiba's room. 'That never happened before.' He thought. 'He never woke up in the middle of night before...' When Gaara went to sleep he generally stayed asleep unless there was something that warranted waking up, except for that one time when he was possessed by a demon. And if there was something like that he would have woken up too, right?

'Hmm...' Naruto started to feel a little worried, where was Gaara anyway? 'Maybe he went with Iruka, I mean he has been with him a lot lately.' Naruto reasoned, pausing his decent down the hall and turning around towards the door to Iruka's office that resided at the opposite end of this corridor. 'Yeah, that's probably it, he hasn't been getting a lot of sleep anyway.'

It was silent, the only sounds were the faint ones of Naruto's foot steps as he back tracked across the carpeted floors to the door in question, why was it so quiet? 'Must have gone on a mission.' he thought to himself, dropping his hands from where they rested interlocked behind his head and reaching for the door knob. 'Everyone else is probably asleep.' With another sleepy yawn, Naruto pushed the door open... 'Wha...What the hell?' He found himself looking into the deep darkness of complete emptiness, an abyss, the growing sinking feeling in his stomach made him feel he was standing at the edge of a cliff, like the room wasn't even there!

Naruto slammed the door shut and leaned against it as if to hold the darkness back, his eyes shifting around nervously around the deathly quiet and sun brightened hall. "What the hell is going on here!"

'This is insane!' Naruto bolted to the next door on the left side of the hallway and pushed it open, only to find the same empty darkness 'Where am I!' Naruto frantically checked the next door, and the next, and the next, frantically trailing down the hall and checking in rapid succession, one after another with the same result. Until finally he reached the final doors, the stairs leading to the library and the other to the basement. "Uh...Uh..."

Which door should he chose?

'Does it matter?' Naruto clinched his head stressfully and looked between his two options, every so often glancing over his shoulder to the blackness beyond the other doors. He also noticed the hallway wasn't nearly has bright as it was when those doors were closed. 'Wait...weren't those doors open? How did they get closed? ...Were they actually open?' Naruto clinched his head and cried out loudly, he could practically feel the hall growing darker and darker around him . "What is this?"

Naruto opened his eyes and found the doors fading in to the growing darkness. It was now or never, he had to pick a door. "What the hell does it matter!" Naruto screamed and lunged for one of the doors. He grabbed blindly on to one of the doors, prying his fearful eyes open to review his choice, which happened to be the one to the basement, and pried it open without farther hesitation.

A swift breeze burst outward over Naruto, ruffling everything on his body that wasn't skin tight. A sharp convulsion shook through Naruto's body that made him cringe and his eyes shut without consent, his blood ran cold, his body chilled internally while his skin grew warmer on the outside. "...?" Naruto shook his head as if dispel the sudden feeling and opened his eyes. '!' "Ghaaa!" Naruto's half open eyes widened to fearful standards.

A black light, like velvet floating atop a body of water, illuminated around him from the gasping emptiness he found on the other side. Deep shadows shined on to his body like light from a dark sun as it expanded to dangerous reaches. Naruto found himself standing face to face with it, almost swallowing him. This strange thing became like liquid, shifting and stirring like waves in a storm.

_I finally get to taste. _

"!"

! - ! - !

"Mmm..."

Naruto slowly lifted his left hand, letting it fall lazily on his face over his right eye, and he rubbed it softly. His mind drifting back into conscious out of somehow managing to slip out of his sleep. 'What time is it...' Naruto opened his eyes, blurry vision sharpening to the moon lit darkness of the room. 'It's gotta be like midnight...' He thought sleepily, staring up with half lidded eyes at the shadows on the ceiling radiating from the darkness of night. 'Hnnn...' Naruto slowly rolled over on to his side and found himself face to face with a sleeping Gaara.

Gaara's eyes opened in that same surreal way, alert and focused as if he hadn't been asleep at all, just as always. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Naruto burred his hands into the messy blond strands of hair, scratching his head lightly. "Nah...just woke up I guess." He said, before curling up beside the red head and closing his eyes. "I just had the weirdest dream." By now his voice was a mumbling whisper while his mind drifted farther and farther away from consciousness.

"Really?" Gaara's voice was completely alert, it amazed Naruto to no avail how Gaara could just be awake as if he hadn't gone to slept at all, how he didn't need it in the least. "What was it about?"

"Huh?" Naruto peeked his eye open and looked up at the boy. "You really want to know?"

"You seemed to be acting pretty odd while you were sleeping." Gaara told him. "What was it?"

"The dream? It was kinda strange I guess." Naruto yawned softly, letting both eyes drifting open half lidded. "I don't know, I was here, and I was looking for you. But every door I check there was nothing there..."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The darkness of night was well upon them now, the moon rising slowly from the horizon ahead. The silver light shined through the trunks of trees, giving a dim light to the forest's floor.

Konohamaru fell backwards against a tree, his head reclining on to the broad trunk and his eyes rolling to the shelter of leaves from thick branches above him before blankly falling shut. "Un...Unhhaa..." Konohamaru's body slid down the chipping wood with a rough scratching sound until he fell to his knees. His body was covered in cuts and lacerations, blood streamed down his left cheek, pooled on his forehead, dripped over his neck and shoulders and a lot of other places he didn't care to think about. The lack of air and extreme fatigue became familiar to him, there rarely was a time time during this when he wasn't desperately drawing in air and his heart wasn't pounding.

Kisame stood no more then 3 feet ahead, watching the boy with a focus, like he was watching a puzzle he couldn't seem to deduce an answer to. An anxious energy coursed through his body as he watched the boy, all desire to continue with this fleeted. On the contrary, he actually was starting to feel bad about this, a completely foreign sensation considering he'd rarely felt bad about anything he'd done in his life.

Konohamaru was still, deathly still, barely moving. Kisame had stopped counting the time it took for Konohamaru to stand, it grew too long for his patience. In fact Kisame was almost sure Konohamaru had fell asleep briefly last time. 'This kid...' It was the most interesting thing he'd seen in life, it was fascinating, it was impossible, it was improvable, it was someone unlike Kisame had ever seen.

Konohamaru grunted softly with quiet whimpers like crying, his eyes closed as he tried to shift off his knees, slowly pushing himself into a crouch and shakily raising himself up. "Uha...!" But his legs gave way and he fell flat on his face, and laid there, staring outward with wanton eyes. He didn't try to make another move.

It had been 5 hours, and the pace had slow to an excruciating crawl that finally collapsed before his eyes. Kisame tilted his head to the side and an unsure expression reached his features, he didn't expect this. "Kono...Konohamaru?" Kisame in softly nudged at the boy with his foot but got no response, Konohamaru didn't so much as make a sound. 'Is this...is this it?' Kisame wasn't sure at first, it was clear he wasn't a sleep, still conscious by the small bit of remaining focus in his eyes. But he just laid there, bleeding.

"Aw hell, is that it?" Kisame scratched his head softly his eyes still unsure, but those unsure eyes dulled into a disappointment. This _was_ it, he was giving up, he thought. His expression dropped in disappointment, the back of his mind held the small notion that Konohamaru might not ever give up, he'd just pass out or something like that. 'He's really done...' Kisame sighed exasperatedly, he'd imagined Konohamaru giving up many times in his mind, and this wasn't remotely the way he thought the boy would do it, just quiting with out saying anything.

Kisame softly ran a hand through the spiky blue hair and turned away, so this was Konohamaru's limit, he never thought he'd reach it.

It's truly was in the journey and not the destination.

'Geez.' This couldn't be it? It couldn't be... Kisame closed his eyes and lifted his hands with uncertainty, as if he was unsure of himself or what to do next. Finally after a still moment he clasped them together and performed a quick series of hand seals before quickly lowering them to his sides in a motion that appeared shunning. The sky stirred above them and the patchy white clouds drifting around the dark sky became gray.

With a loud sound like thunder, water fell from through the trees, rattling the leaves in a loud up roar as a torrent of rain streamed down and drenched the land. Kisame tilted his head back and closed his eyes, standing dormant.

Konohamaru's eyes grew wider, a distinct focus coming into his vision. '...Rain...' He laid there, face down, feeling the water pound against his back in small, wet presses, drenching his clothing. It ran cooling down his shoulders, streaming down from his hair on to his face, washing away the blood from his face, from his body. The pain seemed to lessen now. 'It's...It's raining.' With slow, jerky movements he lifted his head, ignoring the pain that came as he planted his hands in front of him, pushing himself to his knees with a pained grunt from weak and sore muscles.

Kisame folded his arms, still turned away. "So, you done yet?"

"N..." Konohamaru wiped away the water from his eyes and fell back against the tree behind him, staring at the sky. "N-No..."

That was all he needed to hear, besides, he couldn't stand doing this anymore. "Alright kid, that's enough."

Konohamaru stared at the man's back, his newly reconcentrated eyes softened immediately. "R-Really?"

The man simply nodded, staring at patches of sky he could see through the leaves.

Konohamaru's head fell loudly against the tree trunk and he closed his eyes.

'Persistent little bastard.' Kisame took in a deep breath and finally turned around, to his mild surprise he found the boy already asleep, a small smile crossing his lips. Which made Kisame wonder at first, if he could fall asleep that easily, was he really about to give up? 'Heh, probably not...' Kisame thought to himself, kneeling down beside Konohamaru and scooping him into his arms.

! - ! - !


End file.
